While the student may be able to remediate for any wrongdoing in terms of the criminal offence, it’s much more difficult to recover from allegations of dishonesty, where a student hasn’t disclosed information when they should have done.

It’s also important that students disclose information to the GMC during the pre-registration process. Doctors must inform the GMC if they have accepted a caution from the police, been charged with or found guilty of a criminal offence. The police have an obligation to inform the GMC – if a medical professional chose not to bring the matter to the GMC’s attention themselves, this is likely to give rise to allegations of dishonesty, which the GMC takes very seriously.

The student was advised to inform the relevant people at the medical school and deanery and to complete their pre-registration forms as early as possible. It’s likely that the GMC would want to investigate matters further and this could delay their pre-registration and ability to start their FY1 job as planned. Beginning the pre-registration process early would allow extra time with the hope that matters could be resolved before the start date of the FY1 intake.

The student was also advised that the cannabis warning should also be declared. This may also call into question their fitness to practise and may result in health assessments being carried out by the GMC. Again, we advised the student to cooperate with this.

Declaring a criminal conviction

Declaring a criminal conviction