Walter Mitty residential care worker removed from the Register in Wales
Residential child care worker, Martyn Parry Owen, from Caernarfon, has been removed from the Register of Social Care Workers after a Social Care Wales hearing found his fitness to practise was impaired.
The hearing heard that Mr Owen repeatedly made up stories about major life events while employed by Bryn Melyn Care between June 2014 and June 2016.
The committee heard evidence from a residential care manager who was Mr Owen’s line manager for a more than two years. Owen told his employers and colleagues that his young daughter had died from an epileptic fit and that his sister had died in a car accident while he was employed by Bryn Melyn Care.
He also claimed to be suffering from a number of medical complaints, including meningitis. He further claimed to have new-born sons and even went as far as sharing bogus baby photos with colleagues.
However, when Owen was confronted at a meeting with his employers, none of this was found to be true.
The committee found that Mr Owen’s actions were fundamentally dishonest in that he knew these events had not happened. After hearing the evidence the committee concluded that Mr Owen’s fitness to practise is currently impaired by reason of misconduct.
In reaching its decision, the committee said: “Mr Owen’s colleagues clearly thought he had deceived them. We were satisfied that reasonable people would think Mr Owen’s behaviour was dishonest and that Mr Owen must have appreciated at the time that this would be their reaction.”
The committee found that Mr Owen failed to meet the expectations of the Code of Professional Practice for Social Care.
The committee said: “By behaving dishonestly and without integrity, he failed to model good behaviour and act as a role-model for the children in his care. For these reasons, we decided that Mr Owen posed a risk to the children in his care.”
“The close family of the children accommodated in the home would legitimately expect a high standard of honesty from those caring for their children. Mr Owen’s actions had the potential to undermine public confidence.”
The committee said Owen had not provided any evidence of remorse or offered any cooperation during the fitness to practise process.
In summing up its decision, the committee said: “We find Mr Owen’s impairment so serious that, in conjunction with the absence of evidence of any remediation, his behaviour is fundamentally incompatible with continued registration.”
