A BARRY vet faces being struck off in disgrace after being convicted of 20 offences in the last seven years, clocking up about £25,000 in fines, costs and compensation orders.

Maurice John Kirk is fighting for his professional future at a disciplinary hearing after being charged with bringing his profession into disrepute for a variety of reasons, including:

Being convicted of FOUR assaults Having to be subdued with CS gas Resisting arrest Being chased by police in his car

The Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons argues that he is unfit to practice.

Mr Kirk, of the Marlpits, St Donat's, Llantwit Major, whose practice address is the Barry Veterinary Hospital, Tynewydd Road, Barry, has been ordered to part with the cash in relation to 13 incidents between June 1994 and January last year.

He had mostly demonstrated a "disregard of social norms," said Alison Foster for the RCVS.

She told the college's disciplinary committee in London that the convictions included four assaults - one on a 17-year-old tenant, another on a member of the public at a showground where Mr Kirk could only be subdued by the use of CS gas, another arising out of "apparently suspicious circumstances involving his aeroplane" and a further unprovoked attack on a person at Paddington Station.

He has also had ten driving convictions including one when "he was chased by a police car with its blue lights flashing" and two when he locked policemen out of his car; three of verbal abuse; one of resisting arrest and two relating to his veterinary practice.

He is also accused that in January last year at Cold Knap beach, when he was attending an injured dog in the presence of members of the public, he behaved "inappropriately by acting in an aggressive and/or angry and/or agitated and/or rude manner," thereby bringing the profession into disrepute.

In convictions relating to his practice, he was found guilty of failing to prevent the deposit of clinical and vet waste and to contravening a building regulation.

In a number of cases the vet was found to be smelling strongly of alcohol. Mr Kirk, who is representing himself, challenged the facts of seven of the convictions and disputed the entire conviction relating to him assaulting a member of the public at a showground.

He also denied acting inappropriately in public at Cold Knap beach. He has appealed against five of the convictions and has been ordered to pay a total of £14,897 in costs and in one case "certainly almost every avenue of challenge seems to have been pursued," added Miss Foster.

It is alleged that one or more of these convictions, whether taken singly or together, renders him unfit to practice and that the further allegation amounts to "disgraceful conduct in a professional respect".

One of Mr Kirk's convictions was preceded by the discovery of black bags containing bloodstained needles, syringes and swabs that had been left in what was turning into a local dumping site behind the Town Hall in Llantwit Major, the committee heard.

Cotton wool, animal fur and posters advertising Mr Kirk's surgeries were amongst the content of the bags.

He was subsequently convicted at Cardiff Crown Court on March 22, 1996, of failing to prevent the deposit of controlled waste.

He was fined £500 or told he would serve 14 days in prison and was ordered to pay £3,500 prosecution costs.

Miss Foster said Mr Kirk, 56, took the case to the Court of Appeal, claiming he did not accept the waste was found as described but at the hearing on January 17, 1997, his application, on 19 grounds, was refused.

He had told them that the clinical waste may have been confused with building waste, as he was having an extension built on his surgery at the time.

The case continues.