Student optometrist erased from GOC register

A student optometrist based in West Yorkshire has been erased from the GOC register.

Talha Daji’s fitness to train was found to be impaired by a GOC Fitness to Practice Committee due to his conviction of assault by beating.

Chaired by James Kellock, the committee said: ‘The student registrant's conviction for a criminal assault aggravated by homophobic words is a serious matter, which could seriously damage the reputation of the profession, and call into question the trust and confidence in which the profession is rightly held by the reasonable member of the public.’

As the committee reported that Daji ‘did not address any expression of remorse and understanding, nor did he offer an undertaking, or any practical steps in support of such an undertaking,’ members could not be persuaded that there would be no repetition of this in the future.