A student dispensing optician who practised for three years as a DO without becoming registered has had her appeal to rejoin the General Optical Council (GOC) register dismissed by its appeals committee.
Maijella Walsh was said to have started work with Conlons Opticians as a student dispensing optician in 2003, during which time the company was said to have paid for her training and registration fees. The appeals committee said Walsh accepted she was required to renew her student status on an annual basis.
The registrant was said to have mistakenly assumed that the posting of a portfolio to the Association of British Dispensing Opticians (ABDO) at the close of her exams would automatically see her registered with the GOC.
The committee said Walsh was never registered as a DO and no application was received - nor did ABDO receive a portfolio. It added that despite these facts, Conlons seemed to accept the state of affairs and continued her employment without any checks.
'Whatever systems Conlons had in place - and the quality of these is uncertain - they seem to have failed altogether,' said a committee statement.
From 2007 to 2010, Walsh was said to have worked as a DO and a manager. The committee said Conlons only noticed Walsh was not registered in 2010, when it tried to register her CET points.
She said that she was placed under supervision when the lack of registration came to light, but the committee expressed doubts this was actually the case. It added that Walsh only became aware that ABDO did not receive her portfolio in February 2011 - over three and a half years after she submitted it.
In June 2011 she applied for readmission to ABDO as a student and reconstituted a portfolio, but missed the submission deadline. She then applied for readmission in August 2011 with the GOC and attempted to explain her lack of registration through her appointment as a practice manager.