A YORK nurse who gave a drug addict somebody else's methadone prescription has been struck off the nursing register, after a disciplinary panel ruled he was a risk to the public.

Paul Damien Dunn, known as Damien, ran a team providing medical services for the homeless and the travelling community in the city.

He was struck off by the Nursing and Midwifery Council's professional conduct committee yesterday, as it concluded a resumed hearing in his absence.

It was adjourned in January to give Mr Dunn the opportunity to present mitigation, but he did not do so.

During the first hearing, the committee was told that Mr Dunn gave a methadone prescription to a patient other than the one it was intended for on January 31 2002, while working at Monkgate Health Centre.

Dr Judith Boffa told the committee they did not allow prescriptions to be collected by a third party.

She said she was surprised when Patient A, a heroin addict, received a methadone prescription, although he had been in hospital.

Mr Dunn told her he had given it to Patient A's friend. The doctor was concerned about this, because the friend was also a heroin addict and was using methadone for his own treatment.

Mr Dunn was dismissed from the project following internal disciplinary proceedings brought by the Selby and York Primary Care Trust.

He insisted that the nature of their clients meant their own approach had to be flexible, and he felt justified in giving the prescription to the patient's flatmate.

But committee chairman Elizabeth Rush said yesterday it had decided to remove his name from the register with immediate effect. She said he was "unaware of the gravity of his action and therefore remains an unsafe practitioner", adding he "remains a risk to the public".

She said: "The committee are of the view that giving a prescription for a controlled drug to a third party is extremely serious ... which has potentially far-reaching and dangerous consequences."

Updated: 10:36 Thursday, April 15, 2004