A WARRINGTON Borough Council social worker has been suspended from practising after he was found to have borrowed hundreds of pounds from a vulnerable service user.

Leo Kirk has been barred from working in the profession for a year after he borrowed a total of £450 from a ‘vulnerable’ elderly woman who was being helped by the council’s mental health team.

A two-day Health and Care Professions Council hearing in London last week, at which Mr Kirk was neither present or represented, heard that the service user had suffered a ‘severe’ bereavement and was had been diagnosed with post traumatic stress disorder, depression and anxiety.

Mr Kirk began working with the woman in March 2016, assisting her with a benefits claim and attending a social security tribunal at which she was awarded £4,800.

The agency employee - who had worked with Warrington Borough Council since March 2014 - later told the service user that he had been a victim of fraud, with £3,000 taken from his bank account.

On November 4 2016, she loaned Mr Kirk £450 so that he could pay his mortgage.

But he left his post with the council four days later.

The service user was allocated a new social worker, who raised concerns with management.

Mr Kirk had repaid £100 of the money, but the remaining £350 was still outstanding.

After an investigation by his agency Wisemove Consulting, Mr King 'expressed regret that he had let down' the service user and Warrington Borough Council.

He was suspended from a new post with Salford City Council and the matter was referred to the police, although it was found that Mr Kirk had not committed a criminal offence.

Warrington Borough Council repaid the outstanding £350 to the service user in cash, and was then reimbursed by the agency.

The council later received a cheque from Mr Kirk made payable to the service user, with a note expressing his 'sincere regret'.

This cheque was returned to Mr Kirk.

He was suspended from practising for 12 months for misconduct.

A HCPC panel found that Mr Kirk has 'caused distress to a vulnerable service user' while he had shown 'no insight or remediation’.

Panel chairman Mark Aspden said: “The panel finds that Mr Kirk has demonstrated a lack of integrity and abused his position of power in respect of a vulnerable service user.

“The panel cannot be satisfied that there is no significant risk of repetition as there has been no insight or remediation of this serious misconduct demonstrated.”

A spokesman for Warrington Borough Council added: “The council welcomes the decision to suspend this individual from practice.

“The registrant’s work with the local authority was immediately terminated and monies repaid to the vulnerable service user when it was revealed that he had accepted a loan of money from a vulnerable older person, whom he had helped to make a benefit claim.

“As per the account of the hearing details, although dishonesty was not alleged in this case the registrant demonstrated a blatant lack of integrity and abused his position of power in respect of a vulnerable service user.

“The outcome for him is that he is currently unable to practice, and the council agrees that is right and proper.

“Fortunately, cases like this are extremely rare and the HCPC exists to ensure that when malpractice does occur it is dealt with appropriately.”