Student OO suspended

Student OO Talha Hassan has been suspended for nine months after a GOC fitness to practise committee heard that he failed to declare a caution for fraud by false representation on retention forms in 2009 and 2010.

Hassan had been erased from the registers in March 2012 (News 23.03.12) after a committee heard that he was involved in a scheme to make false injury claims in 2008. This decision was overturned on appeal in May on the grounds that the committee had been given incorrect legal advice and failed to give due weight to mitigating factors.

The panel said future review hearings would be helped by Hassan’s renewed engagement with optometry and by working in a non-optometrist role while suspended.