A DISGRACED prison dentist jailed for defrauding the NHS out of more than £300,000 has been struck off.

John Hudson, 58, from Whitworth, was imprisoned for two and a half years last November.

Hudson, of Highgate Lane, was being paid twice – by the health service and by private companies – for treating patients at Altcourse Prison on Merseyside.

He was paid by the privately-run prison in Liverpool, while continuing to draw wages totalling £306,961 from the NHS between 2006 and 2008.

The father-of-three, who qualified as a dentist in 1976, exploited a change in the way the NHS ran its prison dental contracts in 2006 by failing to declare that he was already being paid for the work.

Hudson, who also had his own private practice in Whitworth, admitted 27 offences of wrongfully retaining dental credits.

He asked his governing body, the General Dental Council, to impose a term of suspension, so that he could return to dentistry upon his release from jail.

But the council’s committee panel rejected his appeal, ruling that a lifetime ban was ‘necessary to maintain the reputation of the profession and public confidence in it’.

In its judgement, the council said: “These are serious offences. It is a case which involves serious dishonesty.

“You were convicted of deliberate and sustained fraud involving more than £300,000 of public money.

“You used your position as a dentist to enable you to commit this fraud.

“The committee accepts that your conduct has placed a great burden on your family and that you feel remorse for the distress that you have caused them.

“The committee also noted that you have repaid the public money which you had wrongfully claimed.

“Even taking those matters fully into account however, the committee is in no doubt that the only proportionate outcome in this case is one of erasure.”

John Hudson has no connection with the Colin Hudson Dental Practice of Market Street, Whitworth, and its principle Colin Hudson.