A GP given a 12 month jail sentence for causing criminal damage during a climate change protest has been suspended from the UK medical register for 10 months.
During a Just Stop Oil protest in August 2022 Patrick Hart disabled 16 petrol pumps with a hammer at Esso Thurrock Services on the M25 motorway.1
In addition to striking the pumps with the hammer, he sprayed them with orange paint and interfered with the refuelling of vehicles. Damage to the pumps amounted to around £11 000, and the resulting lost profits from the temporary closure of the station—owned by a subsidiary of the oil giant Exxon Mobil—exceeded £1000.
Hart was convicted of criminal damage at Chelmsford Crown Court in October …
