DO struck off after theft

Swindon-based dispensing optician Simon Backhouse has been erased from General Optical Council registers following convictions for theft and false accounting.

A Council fitness to practise committee said Backhouse’s offences were extremely serious and involved a systemic and protracted breach of trust through misuse of a company credit card and issuing false refunds to patients. His actions only ceased when what he was doing was discovered.

In making the decision, the committee, chaired by Sara Fenoughty said it was in no doubt that the need to uphold proper professional standards and public confidence in the profession would be seriously undermined if a finding of impairment was not made in this particular case.