The conduct of a former primary school principal convicted of stealing tens of thousands of euro from his school has been considered by a fitness-to-teach committee.

The teacher received a suspended sentence in 2022 at the Circuit Court for the offences between 2016 and 2019. He also pleaded guilty to a number of sample counts of forgery and theft.

The forgery related to invoices purporting to come from a children’s charity. The money was subsequently repaid.

At the committee hearing on Wednesday, he also admitted to failing to make a report to Tusla, the child and family agency, concerning a child at the school having been made aware in 2018 of concerns by a special-needs assistant and special education teacher.

He had been battling addiction, he said, and “the wheels started to come off in 2016 into 2017” resulting in his behaviour.

The chairperson of the school told the committee that the incidences of theft and forgery came to light when the teacher was on sick leave. He was confronted when he returned to work and later resigned.

The chairperson made a complaint to the Teaching Council in April 2022.

A psychiatrist’s report in September 2020 said the teacher was “a changed person” and did “not pose a threat to a school community”.

However, the teacher admitted on Wednesday that a few weeks after that report, when he applying for another principalship, he provided an incorrect phone number for the chairperson of the school, as a reference.

The chairperson of the board of management of the school to which the teacher was applying rang the number and spoke to a woman who was a friend of the teacher and who proceeded to give a “glowing” reference.

Alison Fynes, barrister for the teacher, said her client had been in an abusive romantic relationship for 3½ years.

He had completed a four-week residential treatment programme and a 12-month step-down programme.

Three character witnesses gave evidence including the supervisor of a rural development scheme who said the teacher currently works as a local tour guide and a meals-on-wheels driver.

The teacher told the committee he was suffering from addiction issues at the time of the forgery and theft offences and the provision of the false referee, but accepted his responsibility for his actions. He said he had been abused as a child which had a lasting impact.

A medical report found post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) was likely to be an underlying reason for his addictive behaviour.

The teacher admitted professional misconduct and breaches of the code of professional conduct for teachers for not informing staff members of his failure to make the Tusla report and for providing the false referee.

Hugh McDowell, barrister for the director of the Teaching Council, submitted that although the teacher admitted the allegations he had not co-operated with the chairperson of the school for some time.

It was a “serious case that warranted a serious sanction” he told the committee.

The committee, which directed the identity of the teacher and schools to remain anonymous, is to reconvene at a later stage to give its decision on potential sanctions.