A ROMSEY dentist has been banned from practising for eight months after he refused a refund to the family of a patient who died without having his work completed.

James Kleiber, medical director at Wordsworth House in Palmerston Street, refused to pay back the family of one of his patients after they claimed work was unfinished when he died.

The patient had paid more than £10,000 in advance for the work.

Mr Kleiber appeared before a professional conduct committee of the General Dental Council to answer allegations of misleading conduct after refusing to pay any money back over a period of X months.

The claims were made after the patient died, and the family then asked Mr Kleiber for a refund, as the work was not finished. The dentist said that the procedure had in fact been completed, and refused to give them back any money.

The GDC stopped short of revoking Mr Kleiber's registration, calling him a 'highly skilled' clinician, and said his actions could be 'remedied' following the incident that began in 2015.

The Romsey practice said they couldn't comment specifically on the report.

The report from the GDC said Mr Kleiber's communications with the family were 'misleading and dishonest', showing 'a lack of integrity'.

The dentist claimed that he had mistaken the deceased patient with another person, but the report said this was 'not plausible'.

It read: "Your dishonest conduct was repeated and sustained over a period of some months and involved the making of false statements to the family of Patient A and the solicitors acting on their behalf.

"The committee gave serious consideration to the question of whether your registration should be erased.

"You are clearly a very competent and highly skilled clinician and there is a public interest in your return to practise."

A statement from Wordsworth House said: "While we cannot comment on the report, we would like to add the following comment on behalf of Wordsworth House Dental Referral Centre.

"One of James' highly skilled colleagues will be covering his position at Wordsworth House during the eight months he is not available. We also still have the rest of our highly skilled team in place to continue providing the excellent service that we are so well known for."