Simon Atta Darfoor
Introduction
Simon Atta Darfoor is a dentist formerly registered with the General Dental Council (registration number 74987) who was erased from the register — struck off — on 2 July 2024, after a Professional Conduct Committee found he had practised for years without appropriate indemnity and then made false declarations about it to his regulator. The hearing ran from 24 June to 2 July 2024, in his absence. Every head of charge was found proved and his fitness to practise impaired by reason of misconduct; erasure was held the only appropriate and proportionate sanction. Darfoor, in an email explaining his non-attendance, admitted “lapses in my Indemnity cover” and representations to the GDC he described as “disingenuous”; the Committee found deliberate, sustained dishonesty.
Background Information
Darfoor had been indemnified with the Medical Defence Union from 1996; his membership was not renewed from October 2014, and the case concerns his cover after that. GDC standards require appropriate indemnity so patients can claim compensation, and the GDC’s expert evidence explained that claims-made policies respond only to claims made during the insured period, so a lapsed policy requires run-off cover for past patients.
He also brought a substantial fitness to practise history: warnings in 2005 and 2011, a 2013 reprimand for potentially misleading website claims about implantology, and — most seriously — a 12-month suspension from 22 April 2016 over three implant patients, which included one finding of dishonesty.
The Controversy or Incident That Led to Their Cancellation
Adjudicated vs. alleged. What follows are regulatory findings made on the balance of probabilities by a GDC Professional Conduct Committee — not criminal convictions, and erasure is not a criminal record. Darfoor was absent and unrepresented; the Committee was satisfied the hearing notice had been duly served and that he had voluntarily absented himself, and it proceeded in his absence. No charge went unproved: every head of charge, and every dishonesty limb, was found proved.
The determination records that from 13 October 2014 Darfoor held professional indemnity insurance with Novae Syndicate 2007 on a claims-made basis which excluded implantology, while audits submitted under interim conditions recorded 131 implant-related consultations between November 2014 and June 2015. Dearer cover that did include implantology (£68,900 against £18,550) was beyond his funding; he took the cheaper policy and kept placing implants. His later complaint that the policy had been mis-sold was determined to be false and a likely cover-up attempt.
The Novae policy expired on 12 October 2016 and he obtained no run-off cover, despite a broker’s warning that he could “take the chance and not renew”. Three further policies followed: Barbican Syndicate 1955 (2017) and CNA Insurance Company Limited (2020) were voided from inception for non-payment, and Argo Syndicate 1200 (2018) was cancelled for non-payment; no replacement cover was ever obtained. The Committee found he had no indemnity at all between 13 October 2016 and 20 May 2018 while treating patients, including with implants, and while actively pursued in respect of claims from multiple patients. For each unindemnified period it found his conduct lacked integrity and that he “was dishonest in that you knew you were not appropriately indemnified” — conduct that “would clearly be regarded as dishonest by the standards of ordinary decent people and Mr Darfoor would have understood this at the time”.
The determination also records false declarations: in a 2017 letter and repeated emails, Darfoor provided the GDC with schedules of policies already voided or cancelled for non-payment, purporting to show cover in place. In a statement to the Interim Orders Committee in August 2021 he claimed three consecutive years of CNA cover; for one period no policy record existed, and the Committee accepted expert evidence that the schedule he provided “appears to have been falsified”. He also told the IOC that no patient had ever brought a claim, despite a significant claims history. These statements were found misleading and dishonest.
Public Reaction and Consequences
The GDC’s submissions, summarised in the determination, set out the cost to patients. One paid £50,000 to repair Darfoor’s work, cannot afford representation for a civil claim, and told the Committee “I feel defrauded in a way… I feel like people should be protected from Mr Darfoor”; she reported him to the police. Another, told by Darfoor he was on a sabbatical rather than suspended, paid over £11,000 for failed treatment. A third won a court judgment for over £17,000 she has never received.
The Committee found the facts amounted to misconduct: a deliberate, years-long breach of fundamental tenets of the profession — honesty and integrity, putting patients first, maintaining indemnity — seemingly to save money, compounded by attempted cover-ups. It found the misconduct attitudinal and difficult to remedy, noted the absence of any apology, remorse or remediation, and recorded that Darfoor “has ceased practising in the United Kingdom and has moved to another country, seemingly in an attempt to escape his civil (and potentially criminal) liabilities to those patients” — the Committee’s characterisation, not a finding of criminal guilt. Numerous patients remain unable to recover court-awarded compensation.
Its aggravating factors included actual financial and emotional harm, serious premeditated dishonesty sustained over years, financial gain, breach of trust, wilful disregard of the GDC’s role, cover-ups including the falsified schedule, and a complete lack of insight; it could identify no mitigating factors. Finding a high risk of repetition and conduct that brings the profession into disrepute, it determined his fitness to practise was currently impaired.
Current Status
The Dental Professionals Hearings Service records the outcome as erased with immediate suspension: on 2 July 2024 the Committee directed that Darfoor’s name be erased from the register and made an immediate suspension order under section 30(1) of the Dentists Act 1984. Unless he appeals, erasure takes effect on expiry of the 28-day appeal period; if he appeals, the immediate suspension remains in force. The determination records that he had already ceased practice in the United Kingdom.
Impact on Their Career/Life
The erasure closes a career regulation had circled for two decades: warnings, a reprimand, a suspension in 2016 carrying a finding of dishonesty, and finally erasure for conduct the Committee found fundamentally incompatible with professional registration — “neither the public nor the GDC can ever be expected to place their trust in him again”. Because he carried no indemnity, patients who succeeded against him have been left without recourse. Unless he successfully appeals, the erasure is final: Simon Atta Darfoor may no longer work as a dentist in the UK.