A domiciliary care worker from Denbighshire has been removed from the Register of Social Care Workers after a hearing found his fitness to practise was currently impaired because of his criminal conviction.
In November 2021, Mark Weaver pleaded guilty at Llandudno Magistrates’ Court to driving under the influence of cocaine and cannabis.
He was subsequently given a 12-month Community Order with a rehabilitation activity requirement and banned from driving for 23 months.
After considering the evidence, the panel decided that Mr Weaver’s fitness to practise was currently impaired because of his criminal conviction.
Explaining its decision, the panel said: “We accept that the evidence before us relates to a single incident on a single day and arises against the background of at least a three-year career in the care sector, that is – as far as we are aware – otherwise unblemished.
“However, there are multiple offences committed on that day, involving the consumption of two separate drugs proscribed by the criminal law, compounded by the driving of a motor vehicle on a public road whilst the proportion of those drugs in his blood exceeded the prescribed limit.”
The panel added: “Mr Weaver’s admission to the police of being a regular drug user inevitably calls into question his suitability to work with vulnerable people.”
The panel continued: “[T]here is no evidence before us that Mr Weaver has reflected on how his conduct – perpetrated only some 16 months after he became registered with Social Care Wales – fell significantly short of the standard expected.
“There is nothing before us relating to how he has taken – or would take – measures to guard against the risk of behaving in a similar way in future.
“In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, there is a real and tangible risk that Mr Weaver is susceptible to resorting to this sort of behaviour in the future.”
The panel decided to remove Mr Weaver from the Register, saying: “We do not consider that any lesser disposal would protect the public, given the lack of insight and remediation to which we have already referred, and the fact that there is no evidence before us to persuade us that Mr Weaver is capable of developing the insight that is necessary to begin the process of remediation.”
Mr Weaver was not present at the one-day hearing, which took place over Zoom last week.