A teacher who stole thousands of pounds of funds meant for school trips he helped organise has been banned from teaching.

Mark Hill was assistant head at Westlands School in Sittingbourne when he pilfered more than £6,000 between April and July last year.

The 44-year-old, who had been head of the maths department, admitted theft last September and in November he was sentenced at Maidstone Crown Court to eight months in prison. He also had to pay a £100 victim surcharge.

A professional conduct panel of the National College of Teaching and Leadership has now recommended Hill should be banned from teaching indefinitely.

It concluded his conduct had breached the Teachers’ Standards, particularly that they must uphold “public trust in the profession and maintain high standards of ethics and behaviour, within and outside school”.

A report on the decision to ban him, made by Paul Heathcote on behalf of the Secretary of State for Education and published by the National College, said: “The panel considered that Mr Hill’s behaviour in committing the offence was such that it would be likely to affect public confidence in the teaching profession if he were allowed to continue teaching.”

The panel took into account sentencing remarks by Judge Philip Statman that Hill was “highly respected”, “well liked” and prepared to encourage pupils, “doing extra classes and going the extra mile for them”.

They also acknowledged that Hill had “domestic issues” and had been “laden with debt”.

When considering whether a ban was suitable, the panel decided: “Abuse of trust, resulting in the theft of over £6,000 of funds that should have been used for the education of students, is conduct that is clearly far outside that which should be tolerated.”

Commenting on the ban, Swale Academies Trust principal Jon Whitcombe said: “I will not tolerate anything that involves the theft of resources and we dealt with this in the strictest and strongest way possible. As soon as we found out what he had been up to he was suspended.

“I was surprised at how lenient the custodial sentence was. It was a significant breach of trust.

“The sad fact, from his point of view, is that he was a good teacher with a good career ahead of him but he chose, through his own greed, to ruin that.

“Banning him from teaching is entirely appropriate and entirely justified.”

Hill, who was not at the hearing despite efforts to track him down, has 28 days to appeal to the Queen’s Bench Division of the High Court.