14/12/2006

Optician investigated for cheating health board

Police are investigating an optician who is believed to have cheated the Health Service out of around £110,000.

The locum optician, who has a practice in Scotland, examined the eyes of around 645 elderly people in NI care homes, however when the four health boards re-tested hundreds of his patients, they discovered that many of them had been given glasses unnecessarily.

The optician, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was fined a sum of £1000 and has been reported to the General Optical Council.

He is no longer operating in Northern Ireland and has since been removed from the Northern Ireland ophthalmic list.

(EF)

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