AN OPTICIAN from Bolton who stole more than £3,000 from her employers has been struck off the professional register.

Razia Khan, a locum optician at Specsavers in the Market Gate shopping centre in Wigan, pocketed money from customers.

Her thefts were discovered when a colleague noticed a discrepancy between the paperwork and the computer records. Her boss then examined CCTV footage.

This led to her conviction on February 13 this year at Wigan and Leigh magistrates court on four charges of theft.

Khan, aged 38, of Park Street, Bolton, asked for 33 further offences to be taken into consideration.

She was sentenced to a 100-hour community punishment order and a 12-month community rehabilitation order, ordered to pay £20 costs, and total compensation of £3,652,03.

At a hearing of the General Optical Council disciplinary commitee, Mr Rory Clarkson said Khan had sent in a letter admitting to the conviction and stating that she would not be attending the hearing.

The committee heard a statement from Graeme Gardner, director of Specsavers Wigan, that he had viewed the CCTV footage on November 26, 2003, from which he concluded Khan had stolen money.

When he confronted her the following day, she initially denied it, but after she was shown the video she confessed.

"She put her head in her hands saying 'I'm really sorry, I don't know why I did it, I've never done anything like this before'," Mr Gardner said.

He made further checks through the records and discovered another 37 discrepancies dating back to June, 1999, with a total of £3,652.03 missing.

In her letter to the disciplinary committee, Khan said she deeply regretted what she had done and apologised for not attending the hearing, but said she could not face going through another disciplinary proceeding.

She explained that at the time she had had family troubles, including a sick mother, but said: "I realise what I did was the worst thing I could have done to make things better, as it has ruined my reputation and consequently my life.

"I feel like I have lost everything due to my own stupidity."

Announcing the committee's decision to erase her name from the register, chairman Mr David Pyle said these offences had been easy to commit, but very hard to detect. They viewed them as extremely serious.