Optometrist is struck off

An optometrist who claimed for spectacles and tints he did not provide has been struck off by a GOC fitness to practise committee.

Jayesh Bhavanbhai Patel, who ran the Knight Vision practices in Kidworth and Leicester, also received a nine-month suspended sentence from Leicester Crown Court as well as being ordered to carry out 120 hours of community service and pay £5,756 compensation.

Patel's fraud was discovered after his local PCT spotted that his figures for tints and prisms were well above the national average. He admitted the offences at Leicester Magistrate's Court in December 2008 and was committed to the Crown Court for sentencing.