Dental Professionals Hearings Service determination — substantive hearing
GDC suspends dental nurse Hannah Finnigan for 12 months over dishonesty and drug-driving conviction
The GDC's Professional Conduct Committee has suspended dental nurse Hannah Jane Finnigan for 12 months after finding she dishonestly failed to declare a police caution when registering, did not promptly report a 2024 drug-driving conviction, and worked without indemnity insurance.
MedicWatch editorial · Published 9 June 2026 · Updated 8 July 2026
Suspension (suspended from practice) — 1 year
Added to MedicWatch: 8 July 2026Report a correction
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 Hannah Jane Finnigan, dental nurse (General Dental Council 297138).
Decision date: 9 June 2026 · Hearing started 8 June 2026 and ended 9 June 2026
In plain English
The GDC tribunal decided that dental nurse Hannah Jane Finnigan's fitness to practise was impaired by misconduct and by a conviction, and suspended her for 12 months with immediate effect and a review. The Professional Conduct Committee found she dishonestly failed to declare a police caution when applying for registration, was convicted of drug driving in 2024, did not promptly inform the GDC, and worked without indemnity insurance.
Charges
It was alleged that Ms Finnigan ticked "no" on her 3 August 2021 GDC registration application in response to the question about convictions, cautions and police investigations, and that this was misleading and/or dishonest; that on 23 August 2024 she was convicted at Liverpool Magistrates' Court of driving with a proportion of a specified controlled drug (delta-9 tetrahydrocannabinol) above the specified limit; that she failed to immediately inform the GDC that she was charged with and/or convicted of that offence; and that from 3 June 2024 to 28 October 2024 she failed to hold adequate indemnity insurance.
Findings
All charges were found proved: charges 1, 2(a), 3, 4 and 5 on Ms Finnigan's admissions, and charge 2(b) (dishonesty) after applying the Ivey test, the Committee concluding she deliberately withheld information about a police caution when applying for registration. The Committee determined the conduct was a sufficiently serious departure from the Standards to amount to misconduct, and found her fitness to practise currently impaired by reason of misconduct and conviction, on both public protection and public interest grounds. It concluded her dishonesty was not at the lower end, her insight was limited, and the risk of repetition was not sufficiently low. The Committee directed a 12-month suspension with a review before expiry, and imposed an immediate suspension order.
Mitigating and aggravating factors
Mitigating factors
Some developing insight; some reflection; no evidence of repetition of the behaviour since these matters came to light.
Aggravating factors
Significant delay in informing the GDC of the charge and subsequent conviction; personal gain (entry to the Register); not an isolated incident; lack of proper insight; attempts to cover up the behaviour; a disregard for the GDC and the systems for regulating dental professionals.
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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