Man pleads guilty to fraud charges following illegal tooth whitening prosecution

21 August 2017
Volume 31 · Issue 6

A man has pleaded guilty to charges of fraud for using the title of dentist without being registered with the General Dental Council (GDC) and illegally profiting from dentistry.

Fahedi Mohammed Hatab, from Northolt, Ealing, admitted all of the charges at Westminster Magistrates’ Court on July 21, 2017.

Mr Hatab committed the offences while working at Glamour Smile, 51 Oxford Street, in London. The case has now been passed to Southwark Crown Court for sentencing – a date is yet to be confirmed.

Shaun Round, interim head of illegal practice at the General Dental Council, said, “The GDC’s role is to protect patients and ensure the public has confidence in the provision of dental services and one of the ways we do this is by prosecuting people carrying out dentistry illegally.

“Falsely claiming to be a dentist and profiting from doing so poses an unacceptable level of risk to the public and violates the patients’ trust. The GDC worked closely with the Metropolitan Police based at Charing Cross to prosecute Mr Hatab on the charges that have been outlined, in order to protect the public from further harm and to ensure that their confidence in the profession is maintained.”

In 2016, Mr Hatab was prosecuted by the GDC’s Illegal Practice team for carrying out tooth whitening illegally on two people, at the same address, on Oxford Street. He pleaded guilty and was fined £5,000 for each charge, ordered to pay a £120 victim surcharge and the GDC’s costs of £1,192.53 – totalling £11,312.53.