Taylor Vinters - Solicitors

A veterinary surgeon has been reprimanded for false certification of an equine passport.

Eleri Wyn Jones, an authorised Local Veterinary Inspector, had been "wholly indifferent" to whether a horse she had certified had been subject to proper vaccination procedures.

She admitted to a Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons (RCVS) disciplinary committee that she had not obtained further information about a horse's vaccination before signing its passport.

The horse in question had been liveried by a regular client for the practice, but had been recently purchased by an unregistered client.

Ms Wyn Jones admitted that the certification process had taken her only 30 seconds, assuming that the vaccinations had been administered by a colleague.

The committee said: "We strongly disapprove of the circumstances in which Ms Jones certified this horse.

"Clients, and external bodies, are entitled to rely upon the integrity of the veterinary surgeon in not certifying that horses have been vaccinated unless they have carried out the vaccinations themselves, or have obtained full and proper evidence that vaccination has been carried out by another veterinary surgeon."

Ms Wyn Jones had also been aware that the principal of her practice in Gwynedd, Iwan Parry had been subject to a similar committee hearing earlier in the year, having received a one month suspension from the register.

The RCVS recently launched a major review of veterinary nursing qualifications, potentially placing more responsibility for education of basic skills on colleges.