A Kirklees Council social worker altered an email from his boss after cheating during his training.
Tariq Majid, a member of the youth offending team, was found to have copied another student’s work and submitted it as coursework at Huddersfield University.
After being caught by staff at the university, Mr Majid was told to do the assignment again.
But he ended up making matters worse after faking an email from his supervisor at the council in a bid to get extra time for the work.
A disciplinary panel of the health watchdog, the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC), has now cautioned him.
Mr Majid, a social worker at Kirklees since 2001, was studying at the university part-time in 2014 in an attempt to gain a promotion at the council.
He was caught cheating on his studies by computer software which checks the similarity of projects with websites and other essays.
It found his coursework was 78% similar to another essay that had been submitted on the same course four years earlier.
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After being approached by a university investigation team, Mr Majid admitted he had copied another student’s essay.
He agreed to submit another essay of his own but later told university staff that he could not meet the deadline due to a home emergency and pressing work commitments.
He was told he must get “extenuating circumstances” support from his boss at the council.
But he was flummoxed when his boss refused.
Despite this, Mr Majid sent university staff an email purporting to be forwarded from his line-manager.
But he was again caught out when they checked it with the council and found it had been falsified.
The HCPC panel heard Mr Majid was “humble and embarrassed” about his two acts of dishonesty.
He accepted the public would be “shocked and astonished” by his behaviour and would doubt whether he was trustworthy.
After a two-day hearing the HCPC has found his actions were “misconduct”.
A range of disciplinary options were open to the HCPC, including suspension or striking him from the register, banning him from working in health care for five years.
But due to his remorse and early admission of the offences he was given a caution, which will stay on his record for five years.
