Optometrist suspended

The General Optical Council has suspended an optometrist for five months after an undeclared assault conviction and cannabis caution came to light.

Mohammed Khalid last week admitted failure to declare that in 2006 he was convicted of assault occasioning actual bodily harm and damaging property, and cautioned for possessing cannabis.

He did not declare either on five separate GOC applications between August 2006 and March 2009, the Council's Fitness to Practise Committee heard last week. The committee found Khalid guilty of misconduct for this. Khalid eventually declared the criminal record in early 2009.

The committee said: 'Although he told the committee that it was he who eventually made a conscious decision to declare all these matters the fact remains that this occurred at a time when any application to the local PCT to join their NHS Performers' List would have required a CRB check which, as he well knew, would have revealed this history in any event.'