The 26-year-old was dubbed Britain’s cruellest teacher after investigators ruled she had carried out a ‘chronic and elaborate deception’ on staff and pupils at a primary school in Dundee.
However, the profession’s regulators – the General Teaching Council Scotland (GTCS) – allowed her identity to remain a secret despite her astonishing web of lies and deception which traumatised pupils.
Now The Mail on Sunday can today name her as Lara Simpson and reveal she is running a lucrative dance school which offers numerous classes for children as young as three. Some of the classes take place in a primary school.
We can also reveal that despite faking her own death she managed to continue teaching in mainstream schools for nearly two years.
Ms Simpson’s extraordinary deception began as she was about to graduate from Dundee University with a first-class degree in Primary Education in May 2021.
She started concocting the elaborate ruse, pretending she had leukaemia to staff and pupils at a local primary school where she had been on student placement during her degree.
Over a two year period she backed up her lie by meeting staff and pupils using a variety of guises including wearing a wig, being supported by crutches and with a breathing tube inserted up her nose – none of which she actually needed.
She even turned up on one occasion with a prosthetic leg while sitting in a wheelchair.
She created a fake ‘Stand Up 2 Cancer’ video and sent it to several former workmates, and emailed pupils giving updates about her fictional cancer treatment.
Throughout her deception staff and pupils were forced to hear distressing updates about bogus operations, a leg amputation, medical trials, fictional spells in intensive care and non-existent doctors revealing she had only six months to live.
Less than a year into her scam in 2022, Ms Simpson told ex-colleagues her cancer was incurable and that she was going to use her last months to get married.
Weeks later she invited colleagues to the fictional wedding, asked a pupil to be her bridesmaid and even sent the girl a dress for the occasion.
Later that year she claimed she was being flown by air ambulance to a hospital which prompted teachers and pupils to turn up and wait for her at the facility’s helipad.
Ms Simpson’s deception reached its peak in March 2023 when she pretended to be her own aunt and emailed colleagues with the ultimate lie – that cancer had claimed her life.
Then, pretending to be her relatives, she gave a forwarding address to the same grieving colleagues so they could send on any gifts they had wanted to give her, gave them details about her death and asked them for tributes for her funeral.
‘Everyone who knows her has been left gobsmacked and angry over her complete disregard for the truth.
‘And now to find out she is still working with children is shocking. This woman should never be allowed to be in charge of children.’
The Mail on Sunday can also reveal;
■ Her elaborate ploy began to unravel after she was spotted at a community running event in the Highlands just months after her ‘death’
■ She claims she is in training to become a child protection officer
■ Highland council’s leisure quango Highlife Highland and a council primary school even promoted her new business on social media to encourage parents to send kids there
Last night Highland Council refused to explain why the fantasist continued to work for the local authority while being investigated for the cruel hoax and why a school in the area was promoting her business to parents after she had been struck off for her warped behaviour.
The astonishing details of her intricate plot emerged in a ruling by the GCTS last month, which confirmed she had been removed from the teaching register after she confessed to making up the whole charade.
Regulators said their decision to strike her off, for at least two years, had been taken ‘in order to protect members of the public (in particular, children and young people)’ and her ‘chronic and elaborate deception represents a serious violation of professionalism, honesty and integrity.’
But the GTCS decided to keep Ms Simpson’s identity a secret, agreeing to an anonymity application by her solicitor earlier this year – paving the way for her to continue working with children through dance classes.
Until now parents and children have had no idea that the Thurso-based dance teacher constructed a fantasy cancer diagnosis, pretended her leg was amputated, faked getting married and claimed she had died to former colleagues 250 miles away in Dundee.
The teacher’s con was foiled after she moved back to her hometown of Thurso and joined a local Parkrun group in summer 2023.
She featured on the club’s social media pages in June 2023, just three months after she masqueraded as her own aunt and announced that she had died to her distraught colleagues in Dundee.
An eagle-eyed former colleague recognised her and reported the sham to the GCTS, which then carried out a two-year long probe into the affair.
A source with knowledge of the probe said: ‘Someone recognised her at the park run, but thought “surely not” as she was meant to have one leg, not two…and she was meant to be dead.’
Five months before her ‘death’ Ms Simpson had claimed she was in hospice receiving end of life care. Staff and pupils from Dundee had even tried to visit and sent presents to the ailing teacher.
The source said: ‘Staff in Dundee already had their suspicions [before the Park run incident].
‘Their hospice presents had been returned as nobody of that name was there and there were a few other red flags.
‘She had been emailing colleagues pretending to be the ‘dead’ teacher’s relative and asked them for messages that could be played at her funeral… then told everyone it was a private service for close family.’
Teaching officials launched an investigation in late 2023 and took statements from staff and parents at the Dundee school before issuing a temporary restriction order against her in March 2024.
The order doesn’t prevent a teacher from continuing to teach, it only prevents them from moving to a new school while an investigation into their conduct is carried out.
By the time the probe started Ms Simpson had already completed her probation year and was working as a primary teacher for Highland Council.
She continued to work for the local authority while the investigation was ongoing and only left the job earlier this year after the teaching watchdogs ruled she should be struck off the register.
In the months since, Ms Simpson started a dance school ‘LAS Dance Collective’ and has been running classes for adults and children around the Thurso area since August.
According to her website, she ‘has attended ‘Child Wellbeing and Protection in Sport’ course and subsequently about to undertake Child Welfare and Protection Officer Training.’
It also states she is ‘fully insured and PVG checked’.
Despite her removal as a teacher, her local dance business has been promoted online by the council’s own leisure quango Highlife Highland as part of their ‘Active Schools’ programme.
A Thurso primary school has also promoted the new business on its social media and Ms Simpson has even been allowed to use the venue to hold Zumba classes for adults on Wednesday evenings.
When The Mail on Sunday confronted Ms Simpson about her actions, she denied any knowledge of them, claiming ‘That’s not me’ and then said: ‘No comment’ when asked why she pretended to have cancer to school children and their teachers.
The GTCS said it would ‘not comment on individual cases’ but said revealing the identity of a teacher with an anonymity order could ‘undermine the fairness and integrity of the regulatory process’ and ‘cause real harm to both children and adults’.
A Highland Council spokesman refused to explain why Ms Simpson was being allowed the use of a school for dance classes, or why her dance business is being promoted by a primary school given her previous conduct.
But just hours after we contacted the authority, the primary school had deleted all mention of Ms Simpson’s business from its social media pages.
The spokesman said: ‘It would not be appropriate for the Council to comment on individual staffing matters due to confidentiality and data protection.’
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