The General Optical Council (GOC) has made the decision to remove Ian Williams, a dispensing optician from Wales, from its register.
The GOC Fitness to Practise Committee found the Conwy County-based optician’s fitness to practise to be impaired by reason of misconduct, as he had been encouraging patients to make claims on an insurance policy by stating that their glasses were broken when they were not. He also ordered glasses for himself without paying and dispensed contact lenses to children that did not have a prescription, a committee heard.
The committee, chaired by James Kellock, said that it ‘considered that Mr Williams had deliberately acted dishonestly on more than one occasion in the workplace. It further considered that Mr Williams’ acts amounted to a pattern of behaviour and had breached fundamental tenets of the profession and brought the profession into disrepute.’
Another statement from the committee said that it determined that ‘he has failed to show any insight into his dishonest behaviour. He had expressed no remorse for his actions in general or demonstrated any understanding of the nature of his dishonest conduct or the potential consequences.’
Williams has until June 28 to appeal this decision, during which time he is suspended from the register.
