Methadone doctor struck off

Dr Lakhera was found guilty of 50 charges out of 54 he faced

A doctor has been struck off the medical register after being found guilty of 50 breaches of guidelines on prescribing the heroin substitute methadone.

Dr Virendra Lakhera, a former police doctor, was found guilty by the General Medical Council (GMC) on Friday after a hearing which lasted more than a week.

He had denied his conduct was inappropriate, irresponsible and not in the best interests of his patients.

The ruling comes a year after the doctor became the focus of a special investigation by BBC South East.

At the hearing, the GMC told Dr Lakhera he went against good medical practice and was guilty of excessive prescribing.

Disregarded guidelines

Professor Peter Richards, the chairman of the committee, said the doctor had systematically disregarded the prescribing guidelines.

Dr Lakhera, 64, who has 28 days to appeal, worked as a locum doctor in Kent and in private practice from his home in Beverley Road, Barming, Maidstone.

'Liberal attitude'

The GMC heard he had ignored guidelines laid out to all NHS staff about the prescription of methadone and had "a liberal attitude".

He was said on one occasion to have offered one patient three times the recommended dose at a consultation for which he charged £40.

He told the GMC: "Different patients need different things. Guidelines are guidelines, they are not mandatory."

The case was opened after BBC South East Today researcher Neil Ansell visited Dr Lakhera at his home in May 2002, posing as an addict, and was prescribed methadone and sleeping tablets without the doctor checking if he was an addict.

Patients 'knew best'

The GP was then barred from prescribing controlled drugs by the GMC.

In the hearing it was found he also gave methadone and sleeping tablets to genuine addicts, often above the recommended dose and after limited examination.

Asked in the hearing about the risk of prescribing the wrong items to non-addicts, he said: "How often will a patient come to you and pay for the consultation fee, pay for the prescription, if I am diagnosing the wrong treatment?"

He said many of his patients had been drug addicts for 15 or 20 years and that often they "knew best".