PE teacher claimed he'd played for two top football clubs to get jobs

A PE teacher has been struck off having claimed he used to play for two top football clubs to land his job after being rumbled by pupils. Aaron Smith "repeatedly" lied about his employment history when he applied for teaching jobs, a hearing has determined. A Teaching Regulation Agency misconduct panel heard he applied for a job at Woodlands primary school and said he had been employed as a professional footballer at Leicester City between June 2000 and December 2001. The 44-year-old, from from the Wirral, also claimed he had been a pro and apprentice at West Bromwich Albion between 1997 and 2000. And he also said he had represented England Schoolboys at under 15s level. He also said he has played for now EFL clubs Leicester and Albion between the ages of 11 and 20. And he even falsified team sheets inserting his name of England youth team players and a Leicester youth side. He even edited a photo of the current side with his face to show pupils. Concerns came to light in February 2016 when he gave an assembly talking about his experiences as a pro football player at Leicester - but a pupil or parent could not find him online and his lies were exposed. He later joined the Co-Op Academy at Bebington, Wirral, as a PE teacher in 29016 but in 2021 there were repeated absences and he made up names of fictitious medical staff he had been seeing. The panel found he had been dishonest and he has been banned from teaching for at least the next five years.