Optometrist erased after second drink driving conviction

Optometrist James Paul Hands has been erased from General Optical Council registers after a fitness to practise committee heard that he had been sentenced to 14 weeks in prison for drink driving in August 2014.

Hands was given an 18-month conditional registration order in November 2010 after being charged with driving with excess alcohol. In August 2011, the Council brought the matter back to an FTP committee after intervention by his employer and he was suspended for six months. The suspension was extended at review hearings in February and October 2012 and was later replaced with a three-year conditional registration order in November 2012.