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NLJ this week: Patel guidance for convicted professionals

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It’s often a case of double trouble where regulated professionals face criminal charges because they also face professional disciplinary proceedings. In this week’s NLJ, Vanessa Reid, senior associate at Corker Binning, looks at a recent High Court decision, Patel, in which a dentist who caused death by careless driving received criminal sanctions and was also brought before the General Dental Council’s disciplinary committee.

As Reid writes, it is ‘open to a regulator to bring professional disciplinary proceedings based on the same alleged conduct even where a person is acquitted at their criminal trial. Equally, where a person is convicted and sentenced for a criminal offence, a regulator may bring separate disciplinary charges resulting in additional sanctions based on the same facts and evidence’.

Reid explores this area of law. She covers the useful guidance set out in Patel as well as other recent caselaw and practice. 

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