A New Slant on Illegal Practice
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- Published: Thursday, 29 August 2024 07:48
- Written by Peter Ingle
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Reports of illegal practice from the UK and further afield tend to involve unqualified individuals delivering dentisry- anything ranging from whitening, to operative procedures such as veneers. But a recent case in Wigan involved a qualified operator, he just happened to have the wrong qualification.
As reported in the Manchester Evening News, Dr Johnathan Saunders, had a genuine qualification from Liverpool University, the problem was that it was an MB ChB and he had been practicing dentistry.
Dr Saunders advertised his composite bonding services on Facebook. In April 2022 a would-be patient contacted him to make an appointment. Saunders admitted that he was not a dentist but said that he would do an “amazing job.” In one message he said: "Yes it’s just as a cosmetic doctor, I am essentially not a dentist and can only perform certain procedures. Composite bonding is permitted but anything further is classed as dentistry."
He told the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) that he didn’t know the procedure could only be carried out by a registered dentist, conceding that he ’didn’t carry out the necessary due diligence’.
In his oral evidence to the Tribunal, Dr Saunders said that he: ‘didn’t think or know that it was regulated procedure, and that I thought it was similar to teeth whitening because it was non-invasive.’ He explained that when he had been doing his hair transplant training, private clinics were doing a number of aesthetic procedures, such as Botox, dermal fillers, and they were all doing it without having been registered, so he assumed that he could carry out composite bonding.
On May 11, 2022 the patient went to Dr Saunders’s flat on the outskirts of Wigan town centre. No-one else was present. The patient said that the appointment left her, ’screaming in pain’. When she tried to leave the flat in tears, Dr Saunders blocked the door and shouted ’No, you can’t go’. After threatening to call the police the patient, who suffered gum and lip tissue damage, was able to leave.
In the following days Dr Saunders transferred £2,500 to the patient and asked her to sign a contract indicating he had not carried out the procedure. He then threatened her with legal action, demanded she pay him £2,500 and sent her ’threatening and abusive’ text, email and WhatsApp messages.
Over four days he sent 19 threatening and abusive messages. One message, sent on June 1, read: "I’m not just some average Wigan t**t. I have the means and intelligence to ruin you of [sic] you ruin me. That’s a promise. One of his messages the next day was ‘”I’ll bring a nerf gone [sic]…gun”
Another text, sent on June 5, read: "Pay me what you owe me or f****** watch that smirk get wiped off your f****** face."
At Wigan magistrates’ court on December 16, 2022 Dr Saunders was convicted of unlawfully practising dentistry and fined £2,250. This was not his only legal problem. Three days later, at Belfast magistrates’ court, he was convicted of possession of class B and C drugs and failing to provide a blood sample. He was fined £1,450 and banned from driving for a year.
Nor was it his first brush with the law, as the tribunal heard of a drink driving conviction from 2007, for which Dr Saunders had received a custodial sentence after injuring three people.
At the MPTS hearing, Amy Rollings, for the General Medical Council, said that Dr Saunders actions and dishonesty amounted to ’serious and persistent misconduct’. She described his behaviour as ’abhorrent’ and ’truly awful’ and said he had abused his position of trust towards a ’vulnerable’ patient.
Dr Saunders representative said there was ’no dispute’ that his client’s current fitness to practice was impaired. He added that in itself was an ’indicator of insight’. The tribunal accepted Dr Saunders had ’demonstrated significant insight and remediation’.
The panel ruled Dr Saunders was guilty of serious misconduct and suspended him for 12 months.
At a seperate hearing Dr Saunders has also been found guilty of drug and driving offences in Belfast.
The case determination can be downloaded here
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