A Mullingar GP was found guilty of professional misconduct at a Medical Council fitness-to-practise inquiry in Dublin on Wednesday (October 17 ) for being drunk on his way to work.
Dr Zahir Mohamed (49 ), of The Close, Lakepoint, Mullingar was banned from driving for four years in the District Court in Athlone on May 23 for refusing to provide a sample to gardaí after a crash on the M6.
Dr Mohamed had been on his way to Tullamore on the evening of August 7, 2011 to do a shift as an overnight locum when he rolled his car off an M6 slipway embankment just outside Kilbeggan.
Such was his condition at the scene that the first person to stop was another doctor who actually called the Gardaí rather than an ambulance and subsequently reported him to the Medical Council.
Attending officer Garda Darren Murphy felt the “erratic behaviour” of the doctor, and a failed roadside test, compelled him to arrest the defendant and bring him back to Athlone for an intoxiliser test which he refused to take.
There, Dr Mohamed also refused to give a blood or urine sample to another doctor, and claimed in court he was “treated badly and discriminated against”.
He claimed that on the day in question he had been hypoglycaemic because he was observing his Ramadan fast, and had not eaten since 3am.
He also claimed that both doctors who attended him at the roadside and at the station had refused to treat him, yet evidence from the custody log showed he answered “No” when asked whether he was injured or suffering from any medical condition, and that he had not reported his perceived racial abuse.
“When it comes to specifics, his answers are evasive. I simply don’t believe a word he says,” said the judge in May.
The fitness-to-practice committee will now report back to the Irish Medical Council which will then issue a ruling at a date yet to be set.
Punishment can range from a written warning to a prohibition from registration for a specified period.
In an unrelated irony, the top drink driving defence lawyer in New Zealand is called Zahir Mohamed.
