A DENTIST has been found guilty of serious professional misconduct after a hearing was told he snubbed lawyers and judges when he was being sued by two disgruntled patients.

Michael Christopher Allan, of Ormerod Road, Burnley, who boasted a 30-year unblemished record in the town, refused to hand vital dental records to solicitors pursuing negligence claims, the General Dental Council's professional conduct committee heard.

Sarah Vaughan-Jones, representing the council, said patients Tahira Gulveez and Jack Simpson launched personal injury claims against Mr Allan and their lawyers immediately sought their dental records.

Mr Allan failed to comply with Mrs Gulveez's lawyers and also failed to comply with a Burnley county court order to hand over Mrs Gulveez's records and pay £501 costs. He also ignored a similar order from the same court regarding Mr Simpson and did not pay £120 costs.

Mr Allan was also accused of failing to ensure his insurers responded regarding details of his cover in August 2000 and continued practising dentistry without any insurance between January 25 and August 31 last year.

Miss Vaughan-Jones told the committee both solicitors' firms repeatedly sent letters to the dentist without joy. Mrs Gulveez's husband eventually collected her incomplete records from the surgery on December 10, 1999. "It took just short of 14 months to obtain the records."

Mr Allan, bankrupted by the Inland Revenue in November 1996 was prescribed Prozac to combat depression.

He told the committee he was dogged by work and stress. "After the surgery I was probably too tired to concentrate on some of these letters that arrived."

He said a medical condition left him prone to depression and tiredness and he recently quit Prozac in May and decided to sell his surgery to his younger brother and work part-time. "I have done 100,000 treatments and have had just these complaints in 30 years," he added.

After the committee heard evidence of his medical condition they referred his case to the GDC's Health Committee to determine his fitness to practice.