Council for the Regulation of Health Care Professionals v General Dental Council and Alexander Fleischmann
| Jurisdiction | England & Wales |
| Judgment Date | 03 February 2005 |
| Neutral Citation | [2005] EWHC 87 (Admin) |
| Date | 03 February 2005 |
| Court | Queen's Bench Division (Administrative Court) |
QUEEN'S BENCH DIVISION
Before Mr Justice Newman
Medical law - General Dental Council - serious criminal conviction - good standing in profession has to be earned
As a general principle, where a dental practitioner had been convicted of a serious criminal offence he should not be permitted to resume his practice until he had satisfactorily completed his sentence.
The rationale for that was to protect the reputation of the profession.
Mr Justice Newman so held in the Queen's Bench Division in a reference under section 29 of the National Health Service Reform and Health Care Professions Act 2002 brought by the Council for the Regulation of Health Care Professionals against the decision of the General Dental Council to suspend Alexander Emmanuel Mark Fleischmann, a dentist practising in Hayes, for 12 months. The suspension was altered to removal from the register.
Mr Robert Jay, QC and Ms Kristina Stern for the council; Mr Neil Garnham, QC, for the GDC; Mr David Fisher, QC, for Mr Fleischmann.
MR JUSTICE NEWMAN said that the dentist was arrested for inciting the distribution of indecent photographs of children.
Following a guilty plea at an early stage to 12 specimen charges, he was sentenced to a community rehabilitation order for three years concurrent and ordered to remain on the sex offenders register for five years and prohibited from the unsupervised access to children aged under 16. He was also ordered to participate in a sex offenders' treatment programme.
However, the judge made it clear that the case was one which would ordinarily justify a custodial sentence of anything between 12 months and three years. It was only because there were particular mitigating circumstances that a custodial sentence was not imposed.
At a hearing before the GDC he was suspended for 12 months. It was that period of suspension which the council sought to refer as unduly lenient.
His Lordship was satisfied that the GDC did not sufficiently consider the significance of the sentence imposed by the crown court. The dentist's duty of disclosure to his patients would require that patients were informed of the sentence and the conditions attached to it.
His Lordship was satisfied that, as a general principle, where a practitioner...
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