Optometrist Simon Brocklehurst is struck off

An optometrist deemed to have had an inappropriate relationship with a 16-year-old female patient has been erased from General Optical Council registers by a fitness to practise committee.

The committee heard allegations that Lancashire OO Simon Brocklehurst gave his mobile telephone number to the patient during a consultation in February 2012. Over the next month, Brocklehurst and the patient were alleged to have exchanged text messages and phone calls which the GOC said became ‘increasingly romantic’ in nature. It was further alleged that he took the patient in his car to have lunch and invited her to his house at Easter. It added that the patient had taken steps to produce an alibi that would prevent her parents finding out about the visit.