OO fails to be reinstated

At the General Optical Council disciplinary committee meeting last week (see separate story) Mr Hands' application was rejected after the committee heard he had been offered a job as an optometrist in the UK after working professionally abroad. He was erased from the register on August 6 1997 as a consequence of a criminal conviction on charges of false accounting of NHS services in May that year. At that time Mr Hands was found guilty of making false claims for &\#163;5,700 and was sentenced by Nottingham Crown Court to 12 months in prison, suspended for two years. At the 1997 trial, Judge John Hopkin told the court: 'Clearly he will never practise as an optician again.'