Community First for Treatment, which ran two dental practices in Lincolnshire, has been successfully prosecuted by the General Dental Council for illegal dentistry.

The company, which opened surgeries in Peterborough and Boston in September 2006, was convicted of two offences at Peterborough magistrates' court last month, fined £1,000 and ordered to pay £3,000 towards the GDC's costs. This was the GDC's first prosecution of a corporate for illegal dentistry.

Rachel Lea, GDC spokeswoman, said: 'As Community First for Treatment was receiving payment for dental work when the majority of its directors were not GDC-registered dentists or dental care professionals it was committing an offence under the Dentists Act.'

The directors, who were not present in court, opened the practices promising private care at affordable prices. But both practices closed suddenly last summer.

In a hearing at Southampton magistrates court last month dental technician Joe Jordan was also found guilty of 14 offences of illegal dentistry. The offences related to the treatment of five patients which involved taking impressions and manufacturing and fitting dentures which caused discomfort. Mr Jordan was not registered with the GDC and these were criminal offences under the Dentists Act.

Mr Jordan began working on a severely disabled man in a care home weeks after appearing in court for a similar offence, the court heard. Nurses at the home were concerned that the dentures he fitted were so loose, so they took them out to save him choking. Mr Jordan also went to the houses of four other people and took impressions of their mouths, made the dentures and tried to fit them. He was, registered only to make the dentures.

Mr Jordan, of Denture Care & Repair, a mobile business in the Winchester area, was given 100 hours of community service for each offence and ordered to pay a toal of £1,322 compensation to patients. He was ordered to make a contribution of £400 towards the GDC's costs.

The latest convictions followed two earlier convictions of Mr Jordan for illegal dentistry at the same court in December 2006. On that occasion he was given a 12-month conditional discharge. By committing the new offences Mr Jordan breached the conditional discharge. He was resentenced to an additional 100 hours community service.

A two-day hearing will take place in August and the GDC will apply for an anti-social behaviour order (ASBO) against Mr Jordan.