A GP caught shoplifting has admitted lying about the offence to her governing body.

Dr Sofia Nilufar Ahmed, a partner at Redlam Surgery, Blackburn, stole a pair of ladies gloves worth £10 from Debenhams in Blackburn.

Dr Ahmed, who also works as a gynaecologist with sexual health services in Burnley, accepted a caution and Fixed Penalty Notice from police after she was caught outside the department store last year.

But a General Medical Council (GMC) hearing heard yesterday that the doctor failed to tell the truth about the crime to her professional body, claiming in both a telephone call and letter that it was a ‘misunderstanding’.

Appearing before a GMC Fitness to Practice Panel in Manchester, Dr Ahmed admitted that her actions were both ‘misleading’ and ‘dishonest’.

She said: “All I can say is I am extremely sorry. I can’t express how sorry I am and I cannot believe that I have done something like this.

“I can’t believe that I have lied to the GMC and I am punishing myself every moment and every second for that.

“There is no excuse for what I have done and I am ready to get any punishment that I will get for my misdeeds, but during that time there were several things in my life which I did not encounter previously.

“I was extremely sad and I was lonely. My husband was away on GP training.

"My best friend was diagnosed with a terrible disease, pulmonary hypertension. She is going to die.

"She is the one I always relate to and talk to but I couldn't tell her my problems.

“My daughters have left for university and in September my youngest one who used to stay with me all the time left.

"After she had gone I felt extremely empty and lonely.

“There was no intention to do what I have done and I will have to live with the shame and guilt and remorse.”

Accompanied by her husband, the mum cried throughout the early stages of the hearing as the panel heard how she entered Debenhams around 2pm on November 14.

Bernadette Barker, representing the GMC, said a security guard spotted Dr Ahmed and followed her on CCTV cameras for 10 minutes as she removed a security tag and price tag and put the gloves in her pocket.

Dr Ahmed left the shop without paying for the gloves and was confronted by the security guard in King William Street.

Ms Barker said: “This was a classic case of shoplifting and when the doctor made a telephone call and letter to the GMC saying it was all a misunderstanding and that she had intended to pay for the item, that was misleading and dishonest.”

Lee Gledhill, defending Dr Ahmed, said she had also been suffering from health and psychological problems at the time, which were not explained in public.

He said Dr Ahmed was “deeply ashamed by her actions” but that there was “a great deal going on in her private life that affected her at this time”.

He said: “Dr Ahmed apologises to the panel and public for letting the profession down and letting the public down by taking the gloves and misleading the GMC.”

The panel heard that Dr Ahmed, who previously worked for 12 years as a gynaecologist at sites including Royal Blackburn Hospital, was a woman of previous good character.

Dr Ahmed, who came to the UK in 1994, said: “I love my job and I love my work.

“I believe I am a good doctor and I do what is best for the patient.

“I know I’m not going to do anything like that ever again.”

She said she could not explain why she lied to the GMC, except that she was gripped by the shame of informing her governing body, colleagues and family.

She said: “I could not bear to tell my teenage daughters that mum had done something like that.”

Dr Ahmed was made a partner at Redlam Surgery, which caters for around 6,000 patients, in September last year.

Her senior partner Dr Alan Calow said she was a gynaecological expert who he would rank “eight or nine out of 10” as a GP.

He said: “She is lovely and warm and empathetic – patients immediately take to her.”

Dr Calow said the surgery had decided not to fire Dr Ahmed because they believed she had already suffered enough punishment and because she had specialist knowledge which was a great asset to the practice.

He added that he believed his colleague’s health problems were now resolved.

If it decides Dr Ahmed’s fitness to practise has been impaired by her actions she could be warned, suspended or struck off the GP register.

The hearing is expected to conclude today.

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