Jail warning for teacher who stole exam papers
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Your support makes all the difference.A teacher is facing prison after she pleaded guilty to stealing GCSE exam papers yesterday, claiming she felt "personally responsible" for her students' results.
Farzana Akbar, 46, took five maths GCSE papers set by the Edexcel exam board that she was supposed to keep secure at her school, Archbishop Lanfranc school in Croydon, south London. She gave them to pupils at the Headstart Education College, a crammer she ran with her husband in nearby Motspur Park.
Her offence was discovered when a pupil went to the police saying she recognised many of the questions in her exam from the sessions she had with Mrs Akbar.
David Heaton, chairman of the bench at Wimbledon magistrates' court, committed her case to Kingston Crown Court, saying he felt that magistrates' limited powers to sentence her to no more than six months were "insufficient". She was given unconditional bail.
Martin Fox, for the prosecution, said: "She admitted to police she had taken all these papers from the school prior to the exam being taken. She said she had taken them knowing what she was doing was dishonest. She wanted to make sure her pupils would pass the exams because she felt personally responsible for their results."
Robin Falvey, for the defence, said Mrs Akbar had worked tirelessly as a teacher and been a pillar of the community since she came to Britain in 1962. He said her offence was down to "moments of madness" after she had suffered depression from going through the meno-pause and looking after her 80-year-old mother-in-law.
Mrs Akbar has resigned from Lanfranc school.
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