Formby man jailed for fraud

Formby man Paul Manyara, who was a former social worker, has been jailed for nine months on Friday 13th January.

Paul Manyara had been demoted from being a senior social worker after an internal disciplinary panel found him guilty of gross misconduct for failing to visit three vulnerable children and falsifying records to show that he had.

The 46-year-old, from Marina Road in Formby, also failed to escalate safeguarding concerns for a child who had been injured while being restrained in a children’s home

Manyara lied and tried to blame others. His £31,000 annual salary fell to £18,000 and the father-of-two contacted a specialist recruitment agency looking for a role as a senior social worker earning £40,000 a year but did not tell them about the disciplinary hearing.

An email reference was provided by his employers in which the gross misconduct finding was mentioned though, not the details.

Manyara had altered the reference using his computer and changed the nine areas of competency to "excellent" or "good".The defendant then attached it to an email supposedly from Mr Pickett saying he had re-considered his reference and sent it to the recruitment agency.

Manyara was jailed by Recorder Andrew Shaw for nine months who said the assessment that his honest and integrity needed improvement “was something of an understatement. He said: "You are a man who will say and do almost anything to get yourself out of trouble or improve your own position."

“Had you been successful you would have been taking home £40,000 of public money to which you were not entitled. You are not suitable to be responsible for vulnerable children after you deliberately chose to put your gain and financial needs above the needs of the most vulnerable people. You have shown not the slightest remorse and you took this to trial in the face of overwhelming evidence.”

The trial lasted three days after which Paul Manayra who has no previous convictions was convicted of fraud.