Joseph Lewis, the deputy director of the Brighton and Hove Clinic, has been removed from the nursing register after a professional tribunal found he stole £500 raised for charity. The funds had been collected during a clinic fete and were subsequently secured in the clinic’s safe under Lewis’s custody.

According to a Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) hearing, when asked to return the money, Lewis initially stated he had lost the key to the safe. However, a second key was later located, yet the charity funds were no longer inside. The NMC concluded that Lewis had taken the money for personal financial gain, violating core professional standards.

The disciplinary panel characterized Lewis’s conduct as a breach of the fundamental principles governing nursing practice. Such actions, the council noted, undermine public trust in healthcare professionals and compromise the integrity essential to the nursing profession.

As a result, Lewis was struck off the nursing register, barring him from practising as a nurse in the United Kingdom. The decision underscores the regulatory body's commitment to upholding ethical conduct within the healthcare sector, particularly when it involves the misappropriation of charity donations.