Optician struck off for stealing glasses

12:24pm Friday 16th May 2008

AN OPTICIAN'S family were treated to free glasses and contact lenses for three years - because she was stealing them from her employer.

Dalvir Kaur Kallar, of Danson Mead, Welling, has been struck off by the General Optical Council after its fitness to practise panel decided her actions amounted to gross misconduct.

The panel heard how Kallar had appeared at Woolwich Crown Court in February last year after pleading guilty to 26 charges of theft.

After being warned she could face jail, Kallar eventually received a two-year conditional discharge.

Kallar worked for Coton and Hamblin opticians in Wellington Street, Woolwich, as a dispensing optician and practice manager.

At the General Optical Council hearing, the panel heard a statement from the owner of the opticians, optometrist Margaret Packham, who has since died, saying she had employed Kallar.

The statement said in August 2006, two members of staff found glasses had been provided to relations of Kallar. A subsequent investigation brought more discrepancies to light.

Panel chairman Mercy Jeyasingham said: "The committee concluded, because of the gravity of the criminal offences committed, the lapses in honesty and integrity demonstrated, and the consequential impact on the reputation of the profession, her fitness to practise is impaired."

"She committed a number of thefts over a prolonged period of time and they were aggravated by the fact she was employed as a manager and, as such, was in a position of trust."

Ms Jeyasingham concluded: "The multiplicity of these offences and the period over which they were committed amounts to such a serious departure from professional standards, the only appropriate sanction is erasure."

Kallar did not attend the hearing and was not represented.