Dental Professionals Hearings Service determination — substantive hearing
Suspended from practice — 1 year
The regulator’s term: suspension
What does “suspended from practice” mean?
A suspension is a fixed-term pause on the right to practise. The practitioner cannot work in the regulated profession during the suspension. At the end of the period the suspension may be extended, replaced with another sanction, or lifted on review.
Concerning Sophie Alice Colwill, dental nurse (General Dental Council 298490).
Decision date: 8 April 2026 · Hearing started 7 April 2026 and ended 8 April 2026
In plain English
The GDC tribunal decided that Miss Colwill's fitness to practise as a dental nurse is impaired by her stalking conviction and by misconduct. The Professional Conduct Committee found that she had been convicted at Exeter Magistrates' Court in May 2024 of stalking causing serious alarm and distress, and that she had then failed to tell the GDC about the conviction immediately, waiting nearly three months. The Committee found that delay was misleading and dishonest. It suspended her registration for 12 months with a review, and ordered immediate suspension to cover the appeal period.
Charges
1. On 30 May 2024, Miss Colwill was convicted at Exeter Magistrates' Court of an offence of stalking, in that between 1 May 2024 and 30 May 2024 she pursued a course of conduct amounting to stalking causing serious alarm and distress with a substantial adverse effect on the victim's day-to-day activities, contrary to section 4A(1)(a)(b)(ii) and (5) of the Protection from Harassment Act 1997. 2. She failed to inform the GDC immediately of that conviction. 3. That conduct at 2 was (a) misleading and (b) dishonest. Fitness to practise alleged to be impaired by conviction and/or misconduct.
Findings
All heads of charge were found proved. The Committee accepted the certified Certificate of Conviction as conclusive proof of head 1. It found that self-referring nearly three months after conviction did not amount to immediate notification, and that this delay was misleading. Applying Ivey, the Committee found that Miss Colwill knew of her duty to notify the GDC immediately and sought to conceal her conviction until sentencing made concealment impossible, and that an ordinary decent person would regard this as dishonest. The Committee found her fitness to practise currently impaired by reason of conviction and misconduct on both public protection and public interest grounds.
Mitigating and aggravating factors
Mitigating factors
No fitness to practise history; some limited remorse, insight and apology; no reports of any concerns since the events giving rise to these proceedings.
Aggravating factors
Offending behaviour caused harm to the victim; dishonest conduct was premeditated; dishonest conduct breached the trust the GDC placed in her; dishonest conduct sustained over nearly three months; failure to notify the GDC immediately represents a blatant and wilful disregard of the GDC's regulatory mechanisms; lack of significant insight into her conviction and misconduct.
Source
All facts on this page are drawn from the publicly published Dental Professionals Hearings Service determination linked below. MedicWatch does not editorialise the regulator’s findings.
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