Prina Karia
Introduction
Prina Karia is a hearing aid dispenser who was struck off the Health and Care Professions Council (HCPC) register in January 2024 after a panel found she had taken cash payments from five service users for ear-wax removal at Specsavers stores without passing the money to her employer, then falsified their patient records to state that no treatment had been performed and no cash taken. The panel found her dishonesty was attitudinal, that she had shown no remorse, insight or relevant remediation, and that the falsified records could have endangered future care. It concluded her conduct was fundamentally incompatible with remaining on the register.
Background Information
Karia worked as a locum audiologist for Specsavers at two stores, Banbury and Milton Keynes. Specsavers’ policy at those stores was not to charge service users who, on examination by the audiologist, were deemed not to require ear wax removal. Between 20 October 2020 and 22 May 2021, the HCPC alleged, she requested and took cash payments from service users for ear-wax removal that never reached her employer. Service Users A and E were treated at the Banbury store and Service Users B, C and D at Milton Keynes; one service user checked her bank statement, found no card payment to Specsavers on the date of her appointment, and estimated she had paid around £50 in cash. The case was heard at a contested final hearing in January 2024, with hearsay evidence from two service users admitted.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Struck off for taking patients’ cash and falsifying records to conceal it. One allegation — that she falsely claimed a card machine was broken — was discontinued; the taking of cash and the falsified records were found proved and dishonest.
The panel found that Karia requested cash payments from service users for ear-wax removal and did not provide the money to her employer, and that she did not keep accurate records, instead stating in patient records that ear wax removal had not been performed and no cash had been taken. The falsification, the panel found, could have put service users’ health and safety at risk — a future clinician reading the records would not know treatment had been carried out or payment made. The dishonesty was found to be attitudinal. An original allegation that she told a service user the card payment machine was not working when this was not the case was discontinued before the evidence stage, the HCPC accepting it was not supported by the evidence. On sanction, the panel weighed genuine mitigation — previously good character with an unblemished record, practice under conditions without concern, and praise from the HCPC and character witnesses for her clinical competence and caring manner — against aggravation it found overwhelming: abuse of a position of trust to steal from her employer, thefts over several months, falsified patient records to conceal them, risk to future care, and no remorse, insight or remediation.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The striking-off order is recorded on the official HCPTS hearings site and on MedicWatch’s independent record of regulator determinations, with Karia listed among struck-off practitioners on MedicWatch’s erasures list. The panel concluded the conduct was fundamentally incompatible with continued registration and directed her removal from the register; no lesser sanction features in the determination’s reasoning. The case was contested, with witness statements read as hearsay and the panel finding the service users’ accounts reliable.
Current Status
Karia was struck off the HCPC register by the decision dated 30 January 2024 and can no longer work as a registered hearing aid dispenser or audiologist in the United Kingdom. The proved case is the taking of cash from five service users and the falsification of their records; the discontinued card-machine allegation forms no part of the findings against her. No public statement from her and no appeal outcome appears in the fetched record.
Impact on Their Career/Life
A profession built on trust inside the consulting room has little tolerance for a practitioner who turned appointments into cash transactions off the books, and the panel’s finding of attitudinal dishonesty — not a lapse but a way of operating — is what made removal inevitable despite an otherwise unblemished clinical record. The falsified records outlast the employment: every affected patient file carried false information into their future care. Her determination remains permanently searchable on the HCPTS site and on independent records such as MedicWatch.