Headmaster faces sack over criminal record... for an out-of-date fishing rod licence

A headmaster caught fishing with an out-of-date rod licence is waiting to hear if he will lose his job for having a criminal record.

Bob Yeomans, 60, described his predicament as 'child protection gone mad' after his conviction for forgetting to renew the £25 permit was referred to a council panel.

Mr Yeomans, the head of St John's Church of England Primary in Walsall for 26 years, was caught by a water bailiff last summer while on a fishing trip on the Dove in Derbyshire.

Horrified at his oversight, he immediately pleaded guilty. He later paid a £50 fine and £70 costs and considered it the end of the matter.

But almost a year later the offence was flagged up by the Criminal Records Bureau following a routine background check.

"The chair of governors was notified there could be an issue with a CRB check and rang to tell me," Mr Yeomans said. "I said, 'Is it a member of staff?' and he said, 'No, it's you'.

"I was shocked. In effect, he was being asked if I was fit to work with children for forgetting to renew my rod licence."

As required by procedure, the chairman referred the matter to a council panel that decides whether staff can continue teaching.

Although Mr Yeomans, who is married with two children and has an unblemished 38-year career, has not been suspended the school is still waiting to be told he can definitely stay on.

"It's a bit of a joke in the school now," he said. "But you'd have thought someone would have had some common sense at an earlier stage. It was just child protection gone mad. It was clear the offence was irrelevant."

Anglers must have a season-long Environment Agency rod licence which costs £25 for non-migratory trout and coarse fishing and £68 for salmon and sea trout fishing.

Mick Brookes, of the National Association of Head Teachers, said: "He forgot to renew his fishing licence... that is the level of trivia that is bedevilling us all - it's petty."

A spokesman for Education Walsall, part of the Serco group which runs education with the council, said the panel dealing with such cases looked at factors including "the seriousness of the offence or allegation, the history of offences and time since the event in question.

"In the vast majority of cases, a positive trace will not mean that a person cannot be employed or continue to be employed."

Mr Yeomans's case emerged as the NAHT warned that pupils' work placements could be scuppered by similar CRB bureaucracy.

Diploma qualifications being phased in from September will involve thousands of pupils going on long-term work experience - but Government guidance says their main supervisors should all be CRB-cleared.

"This is extremely serious in terms of turning off employers, particularly small employers from taking on young people," said Mr Brookes.