Stuart Coughlan

Introduction

Stuart Coughlan taught at Akeley Wood Junior School in Buckingham from 2015 until his dismissal in October 2019, an employment that ended over a drink-driving arrest: on 23 December 2018 he was stopped by Thames Valley Police at three times the legal alcohol limit after an argument during a night out, and his behaviour at hospital that night drew a separate conviction for using threatening or abusive words or behaviour. He was convicted of both offences in September 2019 and dismissed shortly after. He admitted the regulatory allegations, and on 22 June 2022 decision maker John Knowles banned him from teaching, with the prohibition reviewable after two years.

Background Information

Coughlan had been employed as a teacher at Akeley Wood Junior School from 1 September 2015 to 14 October 2019. On 23 December 2018 he was arrested by Thames Valley Police following a drink-driving incident that same day. His account, accepted as mitigation context by the panel, was that the offending followed an argument during a night out with friends, when he was not thinking clearly; the panel noted he was three times over the drink-driving limit. His conduct at hospital afterwards — threatening or abusive words or behaviour within the hearing or sight of a person likely to be caused harassment, alarm or distress, contrary to section 5 of the Public Order Act 1986 — produced a second conviction on the same day as the driving offence: 19 September 2019, when he was convicted of driving a motor vehicle above the alcohol limit contrary to section 5(1)(a) of the Road Traffic Act 1988, and received a 12-month conditional discharge for the Public Order offence. He was subsequently dismissed from the school. He admitted the facts of all three allegations and that they amounted to unacceptable professional conduct, conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute, and conviction of a relevant offence, in a statement of agreed facts signed on 9 May 2022; the case was decided without a hearing.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convicted of driving at three times the alcohol limit and of threatening behaviour at the hospital that night; dismissed by the school; banned from teaching with a two-year review period.

The panel treated the memorandum of conviction as proof of both offences and found all three allegations proved on his admissions. It accepted the conduct occurred outside the education setting, involved no young people, and followed a night out — but held that the behaviour could have endangered the public and that teachers’ conduct, given the influence teachers hold over pupils, parents and communities, is judged by a public-confidence standard that reaches beyond the school gates. The panel found his conduct “did not set a good example” and amounted to both unacceptable professional conduct and conduct that may bring the profession into disrepute. On the aggravation side, it found the actions were deliberate — “he chose to get in the car and drive whilst under the influence” — and characterised the pattern before the court as a drink-driving offence paired with “aggressive and unpredictable behaviour” at the hospital. It took into account his full admissions, character references attesting to his character and teaching ability, and his own account of the night’s argument.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The panel acknowledged the evidence of Coughlan’s teaching proficiency was “of note”, but held that the seriousness of the offending was relevant to his ongoing suitability to teach and that a finding of conviction of a relevant offence was necessary to reaffirm clear standards of conduct. It identified the Advice’s factors for incompatibility — serious departure from the personal and professional conduct elements of the Teachers’ Standards, and the commission of a serious criminal offence — as engaged, and the public interest in maintaining confidence and declaring proper standards as strongly present. It recommended a prohibition order with a two-year review period, reflecting both the gravity of driving at three times the limit and the mitigation of admissions, character evidence and the absence of any child-facing dimension to the offending. Knowles imposed the order on 22 June 2022. The school had already dismissed him in October 2019, days before what would have been the third anniversary of his start.

Current Status

Coughlan is prohibited from teaching indefinitely and cannot teach in any school, sixth form college, relevant youth accommodation or children’s home in England. He may apply for the prohibition order to be set aside from 2024 — two years from the order — with no automatic right to removal. The criminal sentence itself was comparatively light, a conditional discharge on the Public Order matter alongside the driving conviction, and the two years it covered have long since passed; the regulatory order is the durable consequence. His dismissal on or around 14 October 2019 preceded the ban by two and a half years. The decision records no finding involving pupils, and the review structure reflects that: the panel treated the case as a serious but bounded lapse by a teacher whose classroom record drew positive evidence, rather than as a safeguarding case.

Impact on Their Career/Life

The case sits at the boundary of what the regulator will treat as career-ending private conduct: no pupil was involved, the offences were committed on a winter night out and in a hospital waiting area, and the criminal outcomes were modest. What made it a prohibition case was the combination — a deliberate choice to drive at three times the limit, abuse directed at members of the public in a hospital, and the position of example a primary school teacher holds. The panel’s reasoning preserves the line between punishment, which is not a prohibition order’s purpose, and the public-confidence test: an ordinary intelligent citizen, it found, could not accept a primary teacher back in the classroom unrevised, but might accept one back after two years of demonstrated change — hence the review period rather than a lifetime bar. For teachers, the case is a reminder that the Teachers’ Standards apply “within and outside school”, and that a December night that ends in a police station can end a September career.

Sources

• Dept for Education, “Teacher misconduct panel outcome: Mr Stuart Coughlan” — source