A HAMPSHIRE dentist jailed for cheating the NHS out of £12,000 has been struck off.

Hilary White was found guilty of serious professional misconduct at a General Dental Council hearing.

She was jailed for four months last February after pleading guilty to taking money for eight years by faking patient records at her Bishop's Waltham surgery.

At the hearing in London yesterday White's barrister said NHS treatment was hard to find in rural areas and his client provided a valuable service.

"If she were to be struck off, it would be creating a very large vacuum for those people who need the dental service under the NHS."

But a former patient told the Daily Echo that he was appalled at what White had done and pleased with the outcome of the hearing.

"I had no problems with her work - it was the moral issue I had a problem with. To be taking what is taxpayers' money - my money - to provide herself with a better life is simply not on."

He said many Bishop's Waltham residents were upset by events as White had a position of trust within the community.

White was told at the hearing that submitting false claims to the NHS was dishonest and a highly serious breach of conduct.

Chairman Professor Nairn Wilson said: "In the light of the damage to the reputation of the profession and the undermining of public confidence, the committee is satisfied that the only appropriate outcome in this case is erasure."

White submitted NHS forms for non-existent patients, pretended friends were unemployed and claimed for spurious home visits.

Southampton Crown Court heard last year that staff at the Hoe Road surgery even had a nickname for fictional patients, calling them "Doras" because she frequently used the name along with Doris and Daphne to fool administrators.

A police investigation was sparked after a former employee anonymously tipped off the Dental Practice Board and White admitted her crimes to their investigators.

White, 54, of Mayhill Lane, Swanmore, admitted 26 counts of false accounting between 1994 and 1998 and asked 51 other counts to be taken into consideration. She was ordered her to repay £12,000 to the Dental Practice Board and imprisoned for four months. White and her husband Michael, also a dentist at the surgery, were unavailable for comment yesterday.