A physical education (PE) teacher has been banned from teaching after falsely claiming he had played for two prominent football clubs to secure his job, a revelation that came to light when students discovered the deception.
Aaron Smith, 44, from the Wirral, repeatedly lied about his work history while applying for teaching positions, according to a Teaching Regulation Agency misconduct panel. Smith asserted that he had served as a professional footballer at Leicester City from June 2000 to December 2001 when he sought a job at Woodlands primary school.
Moreover, Smith claimed he had been both a professional and an apprentice at West Bromwich Albion from 1997 to 2000 and had represented England Schoolboys at the under-15 level. He also fabricated stories of playing for current EFL clubs Leicester and Albion from ages 11 to 20.
In a further attempt to deceive, Smith altered team sheets to include his name among England youth team players and a Leicester youth squad. He even doctored a photo of the current team, superimposing his face, to show to students.
The charade unraveled in February 2016 when Smith delivered an assembly recounting his supposed experiences as a professional footballer at Leicester, only for a pupil or parent to discover that his claims did not align with reality.
Subsequently, Smith took up a position as a PE teacher at the Co-Op Academy in Bebington, Wirral, in 2016. However, in 2021, his repeated unexplained absences and the fabrication of names of fictitious medical professionals he claimed to be seeing raised suspicions.
Following an investigation, the panel concluded that Smith had been deceitful and barred him from teaching for a minimum of five years.