Abbie Woodfine
Introduction
Abbie Woodfine is a dental nurse formerly registered with the General Dental Council (GDC), registration number 253563, who was erased from the register — struck off — by a Professional Conduct Committee in February 2025. Her case joined criminal convictions to regulatory findings: in February 2023 she was convicted of driving some three times over the alcohol limit and of failing to stop after an accident, and the Committee later found she had deliberately misled the regulator about her criminal proceedings.
The direction to erase was made on 26 February 2025, with immediate suspension, at a hearing listed from 25 to 28 February 2025.
Background Information
The determination records Woodfine as a dental nurse holding the Diploma in Dental Nursing Level 3 QCF City & Guilds 2014, with no previous fitness to practise history — a factor the Committee treated, with her guilty pleas and first convictions, as mitigation.
The events of 21 January 2023 were summarised in a Police Report: she had consumed “4 medium glasses of wine” before driving home, collided with another vehicle, “causing minor damage to the vehicle and causing no injury”, and when ambulance staff on scene asked her to pull over properly, “she failed to do so and drove off, continuing her journey home”. Police traced the vehicle from a witness’s note of its plates and found her “heavily intoxicated” at home, three times over the limit; she first blamed her partner, then a friend, before admitting in custody she had been driving.
On the day of her convictions she emailed the GDC with the subject line “URGENT” reporting “a drink driving offence I have committed”, saying her employer had asked her to make contact because it “shows as DR10 on a CRB check so would fail”.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Adjudicated vs. alleged. This case has a mixed posture. Charges 1 and 2 rest on criminal convictions on the court record: on 16 February 2023 Newton Aycliffe Magistrates Court convicted Woodfine, on her guilty plea, of driving with excess alcohol contrary to section 5(1)(a) of the Road Traffic Act 1988, and of failing to stop after an accident contrary to section 170(4) of that Act. The remaining findings — failure to inform, failure to cooperate, and the misleading and dishonesty findings — are regulatory findings made on the balance of probabilities by a GDC Professional Conduct Committee, not criminal convictions. The health allegation was heard partly in private and is redacted from the public version. Woodfine was neither present nor represented; the Committee was satisfied notice had been duly served and proceeded in her absence.
The Committee found both conviction charges proved, accepting the certified Memorandum of Conviction as conclusive proof. For the excess-alcohol offence — 99 microgrammes of alcohol in 100 millilitres of breath — she was fined £384 and disqualified from driving for 25 months; no additional sentence was imposed for failing to stop.
Charge 3, found proved, was her failure to immediately inform the GDC of the failing-to-stop charge; standard 9.3.1 of the Standards for the Dental Team requires immediate notification of any criminal proceedings. She reported the drink-driving conviction but never the second; the GDC discovered it only from a Police National Computer printout and Memorandum of Conviction in June 2024. Applying the Ivey v Genting Casinos test, the Committee found the dishonesty limbs proved for charge 3: she had been “deliberately misleading to the GDC” to minimise her criminal offending — claiming she had “got rid off [sic]” the charge sheet and writing “I was caught drink driving and now I’m banned for 18month that’s all nothing more nothing less” — conduct that “would clearly be regarded as dishonest by the standards of ordinary decent people”.
For charge 4, by contrast, the misleading and dishonest limbs were found not proved: there was “no active misdirection”, her silence having multiple possible explanations, including irritation or frustration. Charge 4 itself was proved — despite repeated requests and extended deadlines to 20 April 2023, she never provided employment or indemnity information, and the GDC remains unaware of both. The health charge was found proved, but the Committee determined her fitness to practise was not impaired by adverse physical or mental health.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The Committee determined her fitness to practise clearly impaired by the convictions: she was “not marginally over the limit but was some three times over”, had an accident while intoxicated and drove away — matters capable of harming others and damaging the profession’s reputation. It called the concealment a deliberate attempt to mislead the GDC, dishonest and in clear breach of fundamental tenets; noting she had initially denied being the driver and understated her drinking, it remarked that “her dishonesty appears to form a pattern of behaviour”. Beyond her guilty plea, “there was no evidence whatsoever before the Committee of any insight, reflection or remediation”.
In aggravation it cited the risk of harm, dishonest conduct sustained over her dealings with the GDC, a blatant or wilful disregard for the regulator’s role, and persistent lack of insight. Her engagement had amounted to asking to be left alone — “I don’t get why this keeps being reviewed as I am no longer dental nursing, please stop contacting me” — and a request for voluntary removal forms. Conditions could not address her dishonesty and non-cooperation; suspension was too little to mark the seriousness of the findings; her conduct was “fundamentally incompatible with continued registration”, making erasure the only appropriate and proportionate sanction.
Current Status
Woodfine is erased from the GDC register under the title of dental nurse. The Committee revoked the interim order and imposed an immediate suspension effective on service; unless she appealed, her name would be erased 28 days later, the suspension standing pending any appeal. The hearings service records the outcome as “Erased and Immediate suspension”, and MedicWatch lists her as struck off the register.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The convictions carry ordinary criminal consequences: a £384 fine, a 25-month driving disqualification, and a record which, as she put it herself, “shows as DR10 on a CRB check”. Erasure ends her registration as a dental nurse in the UK and, unlike voluntary removal, rests on findings that she concealed a conviction from her regulator, minimised her offending and obstructed its investigation — leaving the GDC even two years on without her work history or indemnity status.