A former Highland Council social worker has been struck off after falsely claiming for hundreds of miles in travel expenses.
Kubeshni Gounder was also found to have dishonestly submitted claims for financial claims for service users – including making one financial application for a baby using another social worker’s name.
The false claim sparked an internal investigation by the council after the social worker whose name Ms Gounder had used reported the incident to bosses.
Ms Gounder was employed at the time as team manager for the Inverness central area, based at New Craigs.
She had also previously worked in Fort William and elsewhere in Inverness for the council.
She has been removed from the social work register by industry watchdog the Scottish Social Services Council (SSSC), who branded her behaviour a “blatant disregard” for their code of conduct.
They also said she had harmed colleagues and put service users at risk of harm, while saying she had abused her position of trust as a social worker.
Ms Gounder who is originally from South Africa, was found to have carried out a number of false claims for financial assistance for families who “did not request, require or receive” the money.
She was also found to have falsely claimed for hundreds of miles in expenses for journeys which were found not to have taken place.
The hearing in front of the SSSC took place in several sittings in September and October last year and then in January, April, May and June this year.
The SSSC found it was in the public interest to remove Ms Gounder from the register because of her misconduct.
In their findings they said: “Your (Ms Gounder’s) misconduct was very serious. There was dishonesty.
“Each of the allegations involved some risk of harm to colleagues and service users. There had been an abuse of the power that came from your work with service users and colleagues.”
