Missing dentist found by newspaper
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- Published: Monday, 24 February 2014 08:01
- Written by News Editor
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A struck-off Scottish dentist, who went missing, has been tracked down by the Sunday Mail after being accused of charging taxpayers £800,000 for unnecessary treatment Stuart Craig, 53, who ran his own practice in Auchinleck, was found guilty by the General Dental Council of serious breaches of conduct between 1986 and 2011.
He had not been seen publicly since he appeared at Ayr Sheriff Court last July and was fined £4000 for fraud. Craig was giving patients ordinary fillings but charging for gold ones. At the time, he was one of the highest earning dentists in Scotland. A further investigation by NHS Scotland then discovered the actual scale of his fraud was more than £782,896.
The GDC found that complaints had been made against Craig twice before, in 1990 and 2007. Concerns were raised then about the way he ran his practice and his claims for treatments carried out on NHS patients. The GDC found he had provided fillings when there was insufficient clinical justification and inappropriately gave crowns to five patients. In its judgment, the GDC said Craig’s conduct amounted to “serious breaches that were extensive, wide ranging and which persisted over a prolonged period of time”.
His high earnings had caught the eye of John Cameron, NHS Scotland’s senior dental adviser, who alerted NHS Scotland Counter Fraud Services, which started their own investigation. Cameron said of Craig: “I’m ashamed that any dentist could behave in this manner. I did an investigation, having received the General Dental Council’s findings. I looked at the scale of misclaims and I estimate that the amount that he is due to repay – which is possibly an underestimate – is £782,896.”
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