Sahar Tara Sadeghpour
Introduction
Sahar Tara Sadeghpour is a dentist whose entry in the General Dental Council’s register was found by a Professional Conduct Committee in October 2021 to have been fraudulently procured. She registered in June 2015 using a Bachelor of Dental Surgery certificate purporting to come from King’s College London in the name Tahereh Sahar Sadeghpour, along with a purported confirmation letter from the university — neither of which the institution issued. The committee erased her from the register after finding she had never completed the assessments or clinical elements required for the degree .
Background Information
Sadeghpour submitted her application to join the Dentists Register on or around 1 May 2015 and was registered on 16 June 2015. The fraud came to light five years later: on 22 October 2020 the GDC received information from an anonymous informant raising concerns about her fitness to practise, including the validity of her registration. The GDC’s registration team examined her application and identified the discrepancies that became the charges before the committee. The evidence included the certificates at the heart of the case, exhibited in witness statements .
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
The charges centred on two documents. The first was a Bachelor of Dental Surgery certificate purportedly awarded to Tahereh Sahar Sadeghpour by the University of London – King’s College London, dated 1 July 2007. The committee found proved that she had not completed all of the assessments and clinical elements required to obtain that degree, and that the certificate was false because the university did not issue it. In her written submissions Sadeghpour confirmed she had submitted the application, and the committee accepted witness evidence identifying the registration form held by the GDC .
The second document was a letter purportedly from King’s College London confirming that Tahereh S Sadeghpour qualified as a dentist with a Bachelor of Dental Surgery on 1 July 2007. The committee found the letter was false on multiple grounds: its purported author never wrote it, it carried a reference number belonging to another individual, and its enrolment dates did not correspond with Sadeghpour’s actual enrolment on a Bachelor of Dental Surgery course at the college. On these facts the committee concluded that “the entry in the Dentists Register relating to Sahar Tara Sadeghpour has been fraudulently procured” .
The regulatory significance was stark: a person the register said was a dentist had, on the committee’s findings, obtained that status with forged credentials from an institution she had attended but never graduated from. The panel identified the risk in plain terms — allowing an unqualified person to remain registered with the ability to work as a dentist would undermine the integrity of the register itself .
Public Reaction and Consequences
The committee directed erasure from the dentists register and an immediate order for public protection, noting that the decision and an immediate suspension were necessary to prevent an unqualified person continuing to practise. MedicWatch’s record of the case notes the Professional Conduct Committee decision directing erasure, following the October 2021 hearing into the registration-application allegations . The determination records findings against each charged document rather than a contested trial of clinical care — the fraud itself was the misconduct .
Current Status
Sadeghpour’s immediate order meant she could not practise during the 28-day appeal window; if no appeal was lodged, the order would lapse into the substantive erasure, and if she appealed, the immediate order would continue until the appeal was determined. MedicWatch lists her among dentists struck off in 2021 and carries her determination page with the erasure outcome . No appeal outcome appears in the published record .
Impact on Their Career/Life
A register entry found to be fraudulently procured is the most fundamental finding a healthcare regulator can make — it means the right to practise never legitimately existed. Erasure removed Sadeghpour from the register she had joined in 2015, and the findings foreclose UK dental practice. The published determination records the committee’s view that the integrity of the register required her removal rather than any lesser sanction .