Former vet loses 13th restoration bid

A former vet has failed in his 13th bid for restoration to the RCVS register after “vehemently” denying wrongdoing over the issues that led to his initial expulsion.

More than three decades after he was struck off, Warwick Seymour-Hamilton claimed he was “innocent of the whole thing” during his latest application.

But a disciplinary committee concluded that enabling him to return to practice would be “detrimental to animal welfare”.

Barely a year after his previous appeals were dismissed as “vexatious”, Mr Seymour-Hamilton’s latest application was considered during a two-day hearing earlier this month.

A report of those proceedings, published today, 21 August, revealed he regarded the decision to remove him from the register as “wrong”.

Tuberculosis cure

He claimed the practice had been closed to the public when it was visited by two vets who subsequently gave evidence against him and transcripts of those proceedings proved he was “innocent of the charges”.

His application also stated that he had been “too ill and distressed” to attend the original disciplinary hearing which then proceeded in his absence.

Mr Seymour-Hamilton again stressed that he did not intend to return to veterinary practice but was seeking restoration as a means of gaining credibility for his work relating to herbal remedies.

The report said he claimed these remedies could “cure tuberculosis” and were “desperately needed” in general medicine.

His application added: “Due to the college decisions this has been denied by every quarter.”

Turkish schoolteacher

But the committee described that objective as “immaterial”, noting both that the licensing of treatments did not depend on professional registration and that Mr Seymour-Hamilton’s research had not been the subject of “meaningful peer or scientific review”.

Lawyers for the college argued that public confidence in the profession would be “significantly undermined” if he were to be restored without lengthy and intensive training.

The report also described him as “evasive” in responding to questions over whether he had spayed cats in France following his removal from the register, despite previously admitting that he had.

The application was supported by character testimony from a Turkey-based schoolteacher who said Mr Seymour-Hamilton had looked after her children at times when he stayed with her.

But despite describing that evidence as “well intentioned”, the panel said it did not outweigh other factors involved in the case.