Teacher who went on sick leave for 16 years on full pay is charged with defrauding German college of hundreds of thousands of pounds

Published: 14:51 EDT, 28 October 2026 | Updated: 14:51 EDT, 28 October 2026 A German teacher who spent 16 years on sick leave allegedly built a successful beauty business and took up scuba diving while continuing to collect her full salary.The unnamed woman, 62, has been charged with defrauding her college of nearly €250,000 (£209,000).She is also accused of forging two medical certificates in an attempt to show she was fit to scuba dive.The teacher stopped attending work at a vocational business college in Wesel, near Germany's border with the Netherlands, in 2009 due to a chronic illness and psychological problems.But she remained on full pay, submitting sick notes while allegedly pursuing a second career as a naturopathic healer and skin cream entrepreneur.After three months, she should have undergone an independent medical assessment. Instead, her leave was repeatedly renewed for almost 20 years.When the state finally found out, it ordered the woman to undergo a medical examination, but she refused and decided to sue her management. Pictured: The Berufskolleg vocational high school in Wesel, near Duisburg, where the teacher had worked since 2003.The woman was paid 100% of her salary the whole time she was away, despite never returning to the Berufskolleg vocational high school in Wesel, near Duisburg, where she had worked since 2003.She managed to go under the radar until a change of management in 2024, when an internal audit revealed this 'oversight.'The former director, who took over the establishment in 2015, had never met the teacher in question and was completely unaware that she was, in theory, part of his teaching team.According to Bild, citing the German salary scale, the professor reportedly earned between €5,051 (£4,369) and €6,174 (£5,341) per month.She reportedly owns two apartments in Duisburg, in northwest Germany, the media reports.The teacher was employed by the federal region of North Rhine-Westphalia. Alerted to this particular case, the state wanted to subject the teacher to a medical examination intended to confirm her state of health.But the teacher refused and tried to take her management to court. However, since her appeals were rejected, the examination will still take place.'I have a lot of questions because I've never been confronted with a case like this before,' Dorothee Feller, the education minister of North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany, told Bild. Now, all these years later it will be difficult to demand that the professor repay the sums she received as it will be hard to prove that she lied about her health.However, suspicions have been raised over the teacher's apparent inability to work as she may have been practicing as a naturopath during her sick leave.