GOC erases Shropshire based dispensing optician

The General Optical Council (GOC), the UK regulator for optometrists and dispensing opticians, has decided to erase Timothy Vanes, a dispensing optician based in Shropshire, from its register with immediate effect.

A GOC Fitness to Practise Committee found his fitness to practise impaired on grounds of public protection and public interest. This is in relation to his convictions of making indecent photographs at Category A, B and C of a child; and possessing extreme pornographic images of a person performing an act of intercourse with a live or dead unknown animal.

Mr Vanes has until 4 February 2021 to appeal his erasure.