Dental nurse erased for stealing practice funds

A dental nurse has been erased from the General Dental Council (GDC) register after a committee found she stole approximately £240 from a practice safe.

The committee viewed CCTV footage showing the registrant, who was working as a dental nurse and member of the practice management team in 2024, accessing the safe and placing envelopes containing money in her pocket.

According to her employer, the dental nurse admitted to the theft when confronted with the video footage. In a disciplinary meeting, the registrant reportedly said: ‘I know what this is about, you don’t need to tell me.’ When asked why she took the money, the dental nurse said she did not know and offered to repay the funds.

A disciplinary summary sheet recorded that the registrant ‘expressed regret for her actions and indicated that she did not want to lose her job, offering to repay the stolen funds’.

‘Deplorable’ conduct

The registrant was immediately dismissed from her position for gross misconduct. Though her employer did not report the theft to the police, they did refer the dental nurse to the GDC in September 2024.

Finding this testimony and evidence to be reliable, the Professional Conduct Committee (PCC) imposed an immediate suspension and erased the dental nurse from the register. The committee also found the dental nurse to be unco-operative in the investigation as she did not respond to most of the correspondence sent about it. The nurse has 28 days to appeal the decision.

The PCC described the dental nurse’s conduct as ‘an abuse of her position of trust’ and said it ‘would be considered by her fellow practitioners and reasonable, informed members of the public to be deplorable’. It also found no evidence of meaningful remediation.

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