Coventry-based optometrist suspended from GOC register

Coventry-based optometrist Mohamed Saleem Patel has been handed a nine-month suspension order from the GOC register.

The GOC committee found Patel’s fitness to practice was impaired by virtue of a conviction for harassment and misconduct in failing to declare a police caution.

Patel told the Committee he was unaware of his police caution for common assault when he first applied for registration as a student in 2005.

The Committee said Patel’s dishonesty had been repeated on a number of occasions and he had not taken a clear opportunity to tell the GOC.

In relation to the harassment conviction, the Committee was satisfied Patel was unlikely to behave in the same way again.