12 November 2014

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Waimea Weekly

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Wednesday 12 November 2014

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Richmond dentist comes to the rescue

A Richmond dental surgery is helping patients who were in the middle of treatment at the Stoke Dental Centre when it closed earlier this month, but there is unlikely to be any relief for people who made advance payments to the dodgy dentist. Stoke Dental Centre’s owner, Dr Nicolas Smith, closed his surgery on Main Rd Stoke on November 3, after asking the Dental Council to remove his name from the register. The Waimea Weekly also understands the business is being placed in liquidation and that the council had put Nicolas under review in June after receiving complaints about the standard of his care. Nicolas had earlier been convicted of three charges of using a document for pecuniary advantage and one of attempting to obstruct the course of justice in 2001. Graham Leathy, of Richmond Dental Centre, confirmed this week that they had been contacted by “a number of patients” from Stoke Dental Centre and are focusing on ensuring they received a continuation of their

treatment. He says looking after people who had been “in active treatment” at Stoke was a priority. But for one Nelson mother the closure of Stoke Dental Centre has meant more than just a change of dentist. Stacey didn’t want her last name printed, but says she had an automatic payment set up with Stoke Dental Centre and now she is likely to lose $600 in advance payments. Stacey says she called the clinic last week to book an appointment, knowing that she had a credit with the dentist, only to get an answer phone message telling her that the business had closed and referring her to another dentist. “It took me a long time to save and had I not rung my automatic payment would have kept going, no one told me to stop it.” The chief executive of the Dental Council, Marie Warner, says those who are unhappy about owed money should contact the disputes tribunal. Waimea Weekly phoned Nicolas a number of times to try and get comments but didn’t get a reply.

Waimea Village manager Kit Maling outside the front gate, one year on from the residents buying the village. Photo: Andrew Board.

Waimea Village, one year on Andrew Board

It was a chilly Sunday afternoon in September last year when then-Tasman mayoral candidate Kit Maling stood at the front of a packed Blue Herring Lounge, deep in Waimea Village. He wore a tweed coat and shuffled from foot to foot as hundreds of stressed and concerned faces, invariably topped with grey

hair, squeezed past each other and on to chairs that had been set out ready for a big turnout. Battle-hardened by a dozen previous meetings, the residents had hoped for good news but they didn’t expect it. They sat there after a three year fight with the owners of Waimea Village, Michael and Carolyn Wright, over the massive increases to the monthly levy they

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paid. They were at the end of their collective wits. It had been emotional and had taken a huge toll on many of them. Kit stood there, after months of work by community leaders and businesses to support the residents, and offered a way out. He would buy the village and turn it over to the residents, with each

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