DO erased from register after theft

A dispensing optician has been erased from the General Optical Council register after he was convicted of stealing thousands of pounds from a Specsavers practice.

Ian Pearce, from King's Lynn, was convicted of theft in 2011 at Huntingdon Magistrates' Court for stealing cash to the value of £2,422 belonging to Specsavers, a GOC fitness to practise committee was told.

At a hearing this week, which he did not attend, Pearce was also accused by the GOC of not declaring the conviction the following year.

The theft was reported to have taken place while Pearce was employed by Specsavers in St Neots, Cambridgeshire, between January and July 2011. He was disciplined and dismissed for gross misconduct in July 2011.