{"id":1028364,"date":"2026-06-15T15:34:36","date_gmt":"2026-06-15T15:34:36","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1028364\/"},"modified":"2026-06-15T15:34:36","modified_gmt":"2026-06-15T15:34:36","slug":"paramedic-claimed-working-in-manchester-arena-terror-attack-taught-me-a-lot-but-he-was-never-there","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/1028364\/","title":{"rendered":"Paramedic claimed working in Manchester Arena terror attack &#8216;taught me a lot&#8217; &#8211; but he was never there"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Yannek Benson said he was &#8216;used to working in high stress situations and maintaining a level head&#8217;<img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/06\/0_JS120556875.jpg\" \/><\/p>\n<p aria-label=\"Ambulances pictured outside Manchester Arena on the night of the attack\" class=\"ImageCaption_caption-title__ccyQU\" data-testid=\"caption-title\">Ambulances pictured outside Manchester Arena on the night of the attack(Image: Joel Goodman)<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">A paramedic who lied about being called out to <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/all-about\/manchester-terror-attack\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">Manchester Arena terror attack<\/a> has been struck off. Yannek Benson&#8217;s CV claimed he was on duty on the night of <a aria-label=\"\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/news\/greater-manchester-news\/today-of-all-days-remember-33987351\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_self\">May 22, 2017 when 22 people were killed by a suicide bomb<\/a> following an Ariana Grande concert.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">He even claimed the experience &#8216;taught me a lot about keeping my cool&#8217;. But in fact Mr Benson was completing his degree at the time and was not a registered paramedic.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">It was one of numerous misconduct allegations that have now been upheld against Mr Benson and resulted in him being removed from the medical register.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\"><strong class=\"Strong_strong__e2x35\"><a aria-label=\"Click hereLink opens in a new tab.\" class=\"TextLink_text-link__dBSS0 TextLink_enabled__dJF3l\" href=\"https:\/\/www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk\/newsletter-preference-centre\/?view=Solus&amp;mailingListId=b8052254-66af-41f3-9dae-7bbb0e3391c6&amp;utm_source=solusarticle\" rel=\"follow nofollow noopener\" tabindex=\"0\" target=\"_blank\">Click here<\/a> to get the biggest stories straight to your inbox in our Daily Newsletter<\/strong><\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">A Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service disciplinary tribunal heard Mr Benson&#8217;s &#8216;inaccurate and misleading&#8217; CV included the claim: &#8220;I&#8217;m a very hard worker, I&#8217;m used to working in high stress situations and maintaining a level head. I was part of the response team sent to the Manchester bombings as a paramedic which taught me a lot about keeping my cool despite having stressful events occurring.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">A workmate, referred to as Colleague 11, told the hearing Mr Benson had made a similar false claim in June 2019 during a &#8216;really informal discussion over coffee&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">Mr Benson, the panel ruled, also lied about working as paramedic for the West Midlands Ambulance Service between 2015 and 2018, put patients at risk by completing consecutive 12 hour shifts without a rest, drove at speeds of more than 100mph despite not attending a &#8216;blue lights emergency&#8217;, disclosed confidential information that a colleague was under investigation and gave medication to patients &#8216;when it was inappropriate to do so&#8217; among other allegations found proven.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">In a letter to the panel Mr Benson, who did not attend the hearing, said he stopped working as a paramedic in 2020 and had &#8216;fully moved on from clinical practice and this chapter of my life&#8217;. He said he took &#8216;full responsibility&#8217; for his &#8216;clinical errors in judgement&#8217; but denied the allegations of dishonesty.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">The HCPTS panel ruled Mr Benson, who at the time of the allegations was working for Milton Keynes-based Acute Ambulance &amp; Medical Services, was guilty of serious misconduct and ordered he be struck off. In a written ruling they said fellow paramedics would find his claims to having worked during the Manchester terror attack &#8216;deplorable, given the significance of the incident and its wider impact on the profession&#8217;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"Paragraph_paragraph-text__PVKlh \" data-tmdatatrack=\"content-unit\" data-tmdatatrack-type=\"paragraph\">They added: &#8220;[Mr Benson] breached a number of fundamental tenets of the profession, committed repeated clinical failings and demonstrated a pattern of dishonest behaviour for the purpose of personal gain.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Yannek Benson said he was &#8216;used to working in high stress situations and maintaining a level head&#8217; Ambulances&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1028365,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[8813],"tags":[748,393,4884,2465,14214,134783,16,15],"class_list":["post-1028364","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-manchester","tag-britain","tag-england","tag-great-britain","tag-manchester","tag-manchester-arena","tag-manchester-terror-attack","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/116754859321195948","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028364","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1028364"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1028364\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1028365"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1028364"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1028364"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1028364"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}