A community mental health nurse from Melksham will face a disciplinary hearing on Tuesday accused of trying to obtain cannabis from one patient, and exposing himself to another.

Craig Martin, of Union Street, Melksham, faces a charge before the Nursing and Midwifery Council that in June 2009 he sent a text message to a vulnerable patient, asking him to supply him with cannabis for his own use.

Mr Martin, who worked for the Avon and Wiltshire Mental Health Partnership NHS Trust, also faces claims that, in August the same year, he exposed himself to a patient he had invited to his home when under the influence of alcohol.

In February last year Mr Martin was suspended from the profession for 18 months by the NMC’s Investigations Committee as they looked into the allegations, which described the charges as ‘serious’ and involving ‘vulnerable service users’.

On August 4, at London’s High Court, Mr Justice Langstaff extended that suspension for a further three months to allow completion of the disciplinary process.

NMC barrister Shelley Brownlee said a hearing before the body’s Practice Committee is due to go ahead on Tuesday, but the three-month extension was necessary in case there is ‘slippage’ in that timetable.

Mr Martin, who began working as a community mental health nurse with the trust in 2007 and also faces two other separate disciplinary charges, had his case referred to the NMC by his employers in January last year.

Miss Brownlee told the court his continued suspension was necessary for the protection of members of the public, as well as being in his own interests.

Before the Practice Committee on Tuesday, Mr Martin will face claims that his ‘fitness to practice is impaired by your misconduct’.

Granting the three-month extension on August 4, Mr Justice Langstaff said any further delays in dealing with Mr Martin’s case would have to be looked at more carefully by the court, given the evidential weaknesses in the case.