A WEST Somerset dentist suspended for more than two years after an allegation of sexual assault has been allowed to return to dental practice.
The General Dental Council’s (GDC) Interim Orders Committee (IOC) revoked the suspension of Ajith George Behanan, aged 51, owner of Holloway House Dental Surgery, Minehead.
However, it ruled Mr Behanan could only practice dentistry again if he complied with 11 conditions.
The IOC, which no longer publishes transcripts of hearings, marked six of the 11 conditions as ‘private’.
Other conditions included Mr Behanan having to provide the GDC with contact details for anybody for whom he worked which required professional registration, including if he applied to any overseas regulator.
Mr Behanan, who is thought to be abroad, was also required to ‘immediately inform the GDC’ if he returned to the UK to provide dental services requiring registration.
The suspension was lifted for the remainder of a High Court order which had banned him until February 7, 2025.
The court ruling was made in February this year despite a criminal prosecution against Mr Behanan being dropped in Taunton Crown Court in December, 2023, when a judge ordered a not guilty verdict to be recorded on a charge of ‘intentionally touched a woman aged 16 or over and that touching was sexual when she did not consent and you did not reasonably believe that she was consenting’.
The GDC had been told by Mr Behanan’s legal representatives that he would plead ‘not guilty’ to the charge, and that he denied the allegations made against him.
He had been suspended by the IOC from dental practice since August, 2022, following an incident which was alleged to have happened in December, 2020.
Four IOC hearings over the intervening period reviewed his case and each time decided against lifting the suspension because members felt it was required ‘to protect the public’.
At its last review, the IOC ruled: “The committee considers the concerns that have been raised are of a nature and seriousness to suggest that the public would be at risk of harm were Mr Behanan to be permitted to practise without restriction.”
It said there appeared to be ‘some acceptance’ by Mr Behanan that an ‘incident of the sort reported’ had happened and said a principle of proportionality had to be applied where the public interest was balanced with Mr Behanan’s own interests.
The GDC can make a dentist’s registration subject to conditions where a concern has been received and immediate action is required to protect the public and until a full hearing was listed while it looked into the case.
Mr Behanan qualified as a dental professional in Bangalore, southern India, in 2001, and was first registered in the UK with the GDC in July, 2008.
Health services watchdog the Care Quality Commission last inspected the Holloway House practice in December, 2021, when it found it was ‘providing safe care in accordance with the relevant regulations’ with ‘systems to assess, monitor, and manage risks to patient safety’.