AN optician accused of giving inadequate eye exams to 69 elderly people has been cleared of serious professional misconduct.

Philip Leeb du Toit was alleged to have carried out eye tests 'in an awful rush' at a nursing home in the West Midlands in June 2000 and two others in Wiltshire in October 2000. He spent an average eight minutes on exams, which should have taken a minimum of 20 minutes, the General Optical Council was told.

The optician, from Abergavenny in Wales, conceded he did not do a full range of tests on the elderly patients because they were "frail and confused."