Student DO erased from register

A student dispensing optician (DO) based in Croydon has been erased from the General Optical Council’s (GOC) register after a committee found their fitness to practise impaired by reason of misconduct and in the wider public interest.

Student DO Tina Stevens was convicted of four offences under the Social Security Administration Act 1992 relating to benefit fraud in 2011 and then failing to declare them in her student registration application in 2019 and student retention application in 2020.

A committee decided that Stevens’ conduct was dishonest in that she knew, or ought to have known, that she was required to provide details of her conviction to the GOC and did not do so.