GOC suspends student DO

Student dispensing optician Syed Mohammed Yaseen Shah was suspended for 12 months following a case involving repeated dishonesty and treating patients while unqualified.

The fitness to practise hearing determined 'the facts reveal a catalogue of deceit culminating in the forgery of an Association of British Dispensing Opticians certificate and the separate forgery of the signature of the head of examination and registration at ABDO'.

Shah practised as a fully qualified DO and as a trainee contact lens optician when he was not entitled to do so in what were described as repeated and serious acts of dishonesty over some 16 months. 'The registrant had on some five occasions an opportunity to admit to the truth of his personal situation but chose not to do so before resorting to forgery on two occasions,' it said.