A FORMER adult care home worker from Newport is facing a hearing into her fitness to practice by Social Care Wales following allegations over dishonest conduct.

Laila Ruskar Ahmed, registration number W/5068548, is facing allegations that she allegedly used and attempted to use a bank card belonging to a colleague without permission.

In a remote hearing on Zoom which began on Thursday, October 17, a panel of professionals from Social Care Wales conducted a fitness to practice hearing in which Ahmed faced charges relating to these allegations and that her conduct was in question.

The hearing was chaired by Urtha Felda, and proceeded in  absence as Ahmed had chosen not to attend.

Claire Rawle, presenting for Social Care Wales, detailed the allegations against Ahmed.

These are that Ahmed did on one or more occasions use or attempt to use a bank card belonging to a colleague without permission, and that if these charges were proven, her conduct was “dishonest and lacked integrity”.

The facts of the case were that on the evening of Saturday, June 17 2023, while under the employ of Linc Cymru as a healthcare assistant, after her shift, Ahmed used an orange Monzo bank card to make two separate transactions at Beer Buster on Commercial Street in Newport, firstly to buy two energy drinks and a vape, totalling £12.73 and then to buy Blu-Tac at £1.49.

The hearing heard evidence from three witnesses, all of whom had been under the employ of Linc Cymru at the time of the alleged incident and had been on the same shift as Ahmed.

One of the witnesses was the colleague whose card Ahmed was alleged to have used.

Giving her evidence, the colleague explained how she had noticed her card had fallen out of her pocket while on break and had returned it to the pocket of her zipped-up handbag, which Ahmed had seen her do.

The hearing heard how this was a normal course of action for the colleague, who did not notice her bank card was missing until she stopped off at a chip shop on her way home from work around 7.30pm that evening and got phone notifications of two transactions within a minute from her card.

The card was immediately cancelled and a further three attempts to use the card that evening were all declined.

A further two witnesses, an employee and Ahmed’s indirect line manager, gave evidence of having seen CCTV from the shop from that evening that they said allowed them to identify Ahmed as using an orange bank card to make two transactions.

The panel also heard evidence about an investigation meeting that had been held by Ahmed’s line manager on June 22, 2023, during which the colleague’s bag was inspected and not found to have “rips or tears or damage of any kind”.

A disciplinary meeting was held into the alleged incident on June 23, 2023, and the panel were told that Ahmed originally said she had used her own card, but upon being asked to produce screenshots of her own account as proof, Ahmed said she may have picked up her colleague’s card, and not checked.

The panel were told that no evidence to prove Ahmed’s claims of using her own card was ever produced, and that at no time had her colleague given Ahmed permission to use her bank card.

In her closing submission, Social Care Wales presenter Claire Rawle noted that all of the witnesses had described Ahmed as “bubbly and approachable”, with one even calling her a “work friend”, and that no previous concerns had been raised about her professional or personal conduct prior to the alleged incident.

The hearing was adjourned until 9am on Friday, October 18.