Thieving GP stole £130 from mother of sick baby: Family doctor faces being struck off after patient caught her rifling through handbag after she left consulting room

Kelly Wissenden, 29, left consultation room to tend to sick nine-month-old



When she returned, found doctor Nurpal Mittal going through her purse

Mother realised GP, 33, had taken £130 from her handbag after she left

Doctor found guilty of theft and now faces being struck off medical register



Shock: Mother Kelly Wissenden caught doctor Nurpal Mittal going through her purse while she was tending to her sick child in another room

A thieving GP stole £130 from a mother’s purse after she left the consulting room to attend to her sick baby son.

Kelly Wissenden, 29, caught family doctor Nurpal Mittal rifling through the handbag she had left with her son’s buggy in the office.

The physician, 33, now faces being struck off the medical register after a jury found her guilty of theft.

She is also likely to receive a large fine for ‘breaching the sacred trust between doctor and patient’, the court heard.

Judge James O’Mahony told Mittal: ‘A patient has the right to expect that the last person in the world who would steal from them was a doctor.

‘I want to know why on earth you could have done this.’

Miss Wissenden took her nine-month-old son Zaio Headley, who had an upset stomach, to White Cliffs Medical Centre in Dover on June 19 last year.

During her appointment, the mother of two was asked to take Zaio to a baby changing room in the surgery to take a specimen sample for tests. But when she returned to the GP’s office, she found Mittal going through her bag.

Prosecutor Andrew Forsyth told the court: ‘Miss Wissenden described seeing Dr Mittal fiddling round near the change bag and the buggy, looking very flustered.’ He added: ‘She thought it strange at the time but didn’t say anything.’

Cross-channel ferry stewardess Miss Wissenden had £130 cash in her purse, which she had withdrawn earlier that day to pay for a car repair.

But she said she realised the money was missing only after she had left the surgery.

Miss Wissenden returned to the practice straight away and spoke to a receptionist, Canterbury Crown Court heard. They searched the doctor’s room and the changing area where she had taken Zaio, finding nothing.



But when Mittal persuaded them to check the changing area again, the cash had mysteriously appeared on the floor.

Miss Wissenden reported the incident to police later that day.

In the evening, she received a phone call from Mittal asking her to withdraw the theft allegation, the jury was told.

The GP, who was working at White Cliffs Medical Centre in Dover, pictured, was found guilty of theft and now faces being struck off the medical register

After being convicted of theft, Mittal, from Shepherdswell, near Dover, was bailed until June when she will be sentenced.

The court heard she had previously received a caution for shoplifting in Scotland.

The judge told Mittal: ‘This is a sad state of affairs. The jury have found you guilty on overwhelming evidence of being a thief, and not just a thief but one who stole from one of your own patients.’

He requested a mental health report before sentencing, saying: ‘Given the fact she probably receives a healthy salary, who knows why she would want to steal £130 or go shoplifting?’

Miss Wissenden said: ‘It’s really shocking, it’s horrible.

‘I put my faith in her, my son’s life was in her hands and she stole from me. It’s been such a stressful time. The reaction you get when you tell people is, “Really, but she’s a doctor?”