Teacher caught drink driving avoids ban as he was 'fleeing for his life'

A teacher has avoided being banned from the profession after claiming he only got behind the wheel because he “feared for his life” during a knife attack. Justin Scarlett, a former head of chemistry at St Anselm’s School in Canterbury, was more than double the legal limit when he was stopped by police in Broadstairs - but told a professional conduct panel he had been stabbed and was fleeing an “unknown assailant” at the time.

The 56-year-old, who also taught at Simon Langton Grammar School for Boys in the city, said he “knew he was driving towards certain arrest” but insisted it was “done as an absolute emergency measure and saved my life”. Despite being convicted at trial in May 2021 and banned from the road for 20 months, the Teacher Regulation Authority (TRA) has decided against taking any action, allowing Mr Scarlett to continue teaching.

The TRA’s professional conduct panel heard Mr Scarlett told magistrates he had been “violently assaulted by an unknown assailant with a knife” at a house in Star Hill, Rochester, at about 5.35pm on April 16, 2020. Scarlett said he was “stabbed several times”, including through his left earlobe, and suffered “at least one very severe blow to the head, marked by a huge bruise and torn bleeding skin”.

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Mr Scarlett said police and paramedics were called after the assault, but his attacker was never caught, and even returned to the property late the following day. He told the panel he tried calling police several times “but the lines were thoroughly engaged”, leaving his car as “the only method of escape” at the height of the Covid lockdown, with no public transport available.

“I accept there is no justification for my action,” he said. “Only the mitigating circumstance that I was not remotely of clear mind at the time. I was simply terrified to be in the house with a knife criminal and wanted to leave the area immediately. Although I didn’t fully realise it at the time, I was seriously dazed and shaken by the incident, and I believe this disturbance to my thinking and my emotional balance accounts for the most uncharacteristic incident.”

Mr Scarlett first headed for the Holiday Inn in Minster, where he had previously stayed, but found it closed due to lockdown restrictions. He then drove towards his brother’s house before being stopped by police in George Hill Lane, Broadstairs.

Tests showed he had 274mg of alcohol per 100ml of urine - more than double the legal limit of 107mg. In a statement prepared for his criminal proceedings, Mr Scarlett said: “I had been given some stiff drinks for shock during the previous day, but in my opinion at the time I had not consumed sufficient alcohol to be at or above the drink drive limit.

“Self-evidently, that judgment was seriously in error, I believe due to the trauma sustained the previous day. [The] act to drive was done as an absolute emergency measure and saved my life. It was the ridiculous lockdown measures that placed me in this position to begin with and nearly cost my life on two occasions.”

Police officers who stopped Scarlett said he did not appear injured, but he submitted photos said to show his wounds. The TRA report states: “Although the panel noted that the photographs of Mr Scarlett’s injuries were undated, Mr Scarlett gave a detailed oral account of how he sustained injuries in advance of the incident, and the panel concluded that the photographs were more likely than not to be connected with the incident.”

The panel also considered his “incredibly difficult living situation”, which it said likely contributed to his “emotional distress and feelings of unsafety” during the pandemic. “Although the panel considered the driving offence to be serious,” it added, “the panel noted that the events took place at the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, which were unprecedented times, and that Mr Scarlett felt he had no option but to drive to safety because he feared for his life at the time.

“The panel sought to gain further information about Mr Scarlett’s decision to drive, having feared for his life, and found Mr Scarlett’s oral evidence to be compelling. Taking into account the nature and severity of the behaviour and, having considered the extreme mitigating factors that were present, the panel determined that a recommendation for a prohibition order would not be appropriate in this case.”

Decision-maker David Oatley agreed with the recommendation on behalf of the Secretary of State. Scarlett was not working at St Anselm’s at the time of the offence and, by 2023, was teaching at a school in Wolverhampton. According to his LinkedIn page, he is now based in Thailand.

After the hearing, he said: “My mitigating circumstances were that I had no choice other than to die a grim death by stabbing. I’m only alive by the grace of God and some pretty neat Muay Thai I picked up in Thailand. Sensing further public ridicule round the corner, the TRA - without an NVQ in clipboard management amongst them - had no choice but to realise my heroic actions.

“Watching these moronista sub-quangos ‘operate’ is of no more consequence than watching a monkey on roller-skates, or hearing claptrap like, ‘responsibly sourced African Ivory’ or ‘Fairtrade Cocaine’.”

In 2013, Mr Scarlett was in the news after fire crews were called to an experiment at his former home in Herne Bay. He called NHS Direct when he started feeling dizzy, but he was diagnosed with a delayed concussion, rather than a reaction to chemicals.