A dentist has been disciplined for wrongly charging for work on children's teeth that should have been free on the NHS.

Dirk Slabbert charged eight families a total of £732 when they had treatment at his Brighton practice.

The money has now been refunded and East Sussex, Brighton and Hove Health Authority has withheld £7,328 from Mr Slabbert's payments to cover the fees plus costs and administration.

This was the third disciplinary action brought by the health authority against the dentist, who has a practice of 10,000 patients.

Health authority acting chief executive Kate Money said: "Patients trust their dentist to know and correctly apply the rules regarding what payments are due, if any, for treatment under the NHS.

"In these eight cases, despite a previous warning, Mr Slabbert continued to confuse private and NHS treatment and ask for fees from parents when the treatment provided under the NHS would have been free."

The cases came to light when the Dental Practice Board (DPB), which is based in Eastbourne, carried out checks on children being given orthodontic treatment by Mr Slabbert under the NHS.

There was no suggestion the children's treatment had been of poor quality but it appeared Mr Slabbert had asked the children's parents to pay him various amounts of money while, at the same time, claiming NHS fees.

Under NHS rules, orthodontic treatment must be provided either entirely privately or entirely under the NHS.

The children's ages meant the parents should not have had to pay anything towards the NHS fees as the dentist would have received the full amount from the DPB.

The DPB drew the health authority's attention to three separate instances, involving treatment provided to eight children.

The authority referred each instance for formal investigation by another health authority's dental discipline committee. It decided the dentist had acted incorrectly and contrary to his NHS contract in each case.

Mr Slabbert appealed against the decisions but an appeal panel appointed by Health Secretary Alan Milburn decided the dentist had improperly asked parents to pay private fees as well as claiming money from the NHS.

Mr Slabbert, based at Carden Avenue Dental Practice, said he had been penalised for trying to provide affordable treatment.

He said: "With a lot of dental treatments you can mix private and NHS fees but you can't with orthodontic work. That was something I did not realise.

"A full private treatment of the type on offer would cost between £1,500 to £2,000. I thought I was helping patients by keeping prices lower.

"I offer an alternative type of treatment to the authority, which involves seeing children younger and in the long term, helps avoid any teeth being extracted when they get old enough to be fitted with a brace.

"My treatment and philosophy does not fit with the health service philosophy and so patients have to pay the full amount."