A therapist was suspended after crashing into parked cars while using her phone to charge, leading to a drink-driving conviction
Birmingham: So, there’s this occupational therapist named Christel Rogers who got into a bit of trouble. She crashed into two parked cars while trying to charge her phone. Can you believe that? She was just driving slowly in a car park, thinking it was all good.
The police caught up with her the next day, and she ended up getting charged with drink-driving. It took her eight months to let her bosses know about her conviction, which is a big no-no in her line of work.
The Health and Care Professions Tribunal Service didn’t take kindly to that. They found her actions were misconduct and said she wasn’t fit to practice. Apparently, she was pulled over for a breath test late one night back in June 2022.
She was driving under the influence and hit those parked cars. A security guard saw the whole thing and called the cops. When she went to court, she denied it, but the judge wasn’t having it. She got convicted in January 2023.
Rogers finally filled out a form for the Health and Care Professions Council, admitting she had a drink-driving charge. She mentioned losing her license and having to attend probation meetings. But she thought she didn’t need to tell them right away since she wasn’t working as a therapist at the time.
The panel didn’t buy that excuse. They said she should have reported it immediately, regardless of her job status. They felt her delay made it harder for the council to do their job properly.
In the end, she got a six-month suspension. The panel felt there wasn’t enough evidence that she had learned from her mistakes. She even claimed she was angry at the time and had been a victim of a crime herself, but that didn’t really help her case.
Rogers said her lawyers advised her to plead not guilty, which she regretted. But without solid proof that she had dealt with her issues, the panel was worried she might repeat her mistakes.
