Dean Carter

Introduction

Dean Carter is a paramedic who was registered with the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) under registration number PA35142. On 9 September 2025, at the end of a two-day video-link hearing, a panel of the Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service (HCPTS) struck him off the register. It found his fitness to practise currently impaired by a drug-driving conviction and by misconduct — repeated failure to tell his regulator of the charge, the conviction and his employer’s practice restrictions — and found those failures dishonest. He did not attend and was not represented.

Background Information

The published record identifies Carter as a paramedic employed by West Midlands Ambulance Service University NHS Foundation Trust from January 2016. MedicWatch, an independent service that republishes UK regulators’ decisions without editorialising them, lists erasure (struck off the register) as his most recent published outcome.

The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation

Convictions are facts; striking-off is the regulatory consequence. The conviction below is a criminal fact; what the panel assessed was its regulatory consequence, plus the separate allegation — on the civil standard, and found proved — that Carter concealed it from his regulator.

On 8 December 2021, West Mercia Police stopped Carter over concerns about his driving; a roadside drug swab tested positive and he was arrested. Blood analysis later confirmed he had been driving under the influence of benzoylecgonine, a cocaine metabolite. He took sick leave and told his employer nothing of the arrest or investigation. On 9 February 2022 the Trust moved him from his Band 6 paramedic post into a non-patient-facing vehicle preparation role. Police told the Trust of the blood result on 29 April 2022, a charge notice followed on 4 May, and the Trust referred him to the HCPC on 6 May and dismissed him on 9 May. On 31 May 2022, having pleaded guilty, he was convicted at Worcester Magistrates’ Court of driving with not less than 55 micrograms of benzoylecgonine in his blood, receiving a 12-month ban and a £120 fine.

The regulatory case turned on what the HCPC was never told: the charge, the conviction, and the restrictions the Trust placed on his practice on 9 February 2022. An HCPC operational manager said a review of the regulator’s systems confirmed he had not informed it at any stage, and that he “has not engaged at all with the HCPC during the investigation.” The panel found all three particulars proved. Concluding, on the test in Ivey v Genting Casinos, that Carter knew of his duty under paragraph 9.5 of the HCPC standards to notify a charge, a conviction or restrictions on his practice, it held that in not doing so he “was seeking to conceal each of the three linked matters from his regulator” — conduct ordinary people would call dishonest. It found misconduct and impairment on both the personal component — no engagement in over three years, no insight, no remediation, a risk of repetition — and the public component. With his lack of insight, repeated dishonesty and total non-engagement recorded as aggravating and no mitigation identified, it treated dishonesty as a sanction of last resort, rejected caution, conditions and suspension orders as unworkable or disproportionate, and struck him off.

Public Reaction and Consequences

The published record contains no press coverage and no public statements from any party. Consequences had already accumulated before the panel ruled: dismissal by the Trust, a twelve-month driving ban and a £120 fine. The regulatory outcome removed him from the profession altogether. Because he engaged with none of it, the panel decided the case on the HCPC’s evidence alone, noting that his inability to challenge it followed from his own choice to waive his rights to attend and be represented — an empty chair filled by sworn evidence, a certificate of conviction, and a dishonesty finding made without a single submission from the registrant.

Current Status

Carter was struck off the HCPC register by the panel’s decision of 9 September 2025. An interim order had been in place since 11 October 2024 — such orders restrict practice pending a hearing and are not findings of fault — and the final hearing added an interim suspension covering the appeal period, capped at eighteen months. Any appeal to the High Court must be made within 28 days of service of the notice; the striking-off takes effect only once the appeal period expires or any appeal concludes. His registration status is recorded as not yet verified; the official HCPC register shows his current position. He may apply for restoration after a minimum of five years; any return would require a fresh assessment of his fitness to practise.

Impact on Their Career/Life

Striking off ended Carter’s registration and his ability to work as a paramedic in the UK unless restoration succeeds. The case illustrates a disproportion that is only apparent: the underlying criminal matter — a first-time drug-driving offence resolved by plea, a twelve-month ban and a £120 fine — was modest by criminal standards, but the three-year silence that followed proved fatal. The panel found no insight, no remorse and no remediation anywhere in the record, and treated the concealment as dishonesty toward the regulator, which under the sanctions policy demands a graver outcome than the offence alone. A registrant who had engaged and remediated might have faced a different order; the record offered the panel nothing of the kind. Beyond the determination, the record says nothing about his circumstances since.

Sources

• *MedicWatch, “HCPTS panel strikes off Dean Carter over dishonesty” (HCPC determination, substantive hearing, decision dated 9 September 2025) — source
• *MedicWatch, “Dean Carter — Struck off the register | Health and Care Professions Council PA35142” — source
• *HCPTS, “Dean Carter — Final Hearing, Conduct and Competence Committee, 8–9 September 2025” — source