Content area
Full Text
MISS Judith Lesley Kay continued to practise as a veterinary surgeon after her name had been removed from the rcvs Register following her conviction for a drink-driving offence, the Royal College Disciplinary Committee was told last month.
At a hearing on January 28, the committee rejected Miss Kay's application to be readmitted to the Register and return to work at the practice she owns in Sawbridgeworth, Hertfordshire. However, she was told that her admission to having illegally carried out veterinary procedures was not the primary reason for the decision. The chairman of the Disciplinary Committee, Mr Brian Jennings, said the committee was not convinced she had control over her alcohol addiction, and so it was not in the interests of the public or animal welfare for her to resume her veterinary career.
Mrs Nicole Curtis, counsel for the Royal College, reminded the committee that Miss Kay had first appeared before it on December 11, 2006. The committee had found that a conviction before North and East Herts Magistrates in May 2006 for driving while more than three times over the legal alcohol limit rendered her unfit to practise veterinary surgery. This had been her fourth offence and she had received a four-month prison sentence and been disqualified from driving for five years.
Mrs Curtis reminded the committee that it had postponed imposing an order, to allow Miss Kay to put forward a structured plan for dealing with her alcohol problems while continuing to practise. It had proposed...