Dr Umapada Das, of Bexley Heath, Kent, told the General Medical Council he now realised that it had been unwise to give heroin addict Lee Batchelor five prescriptions for the heroin substitute methadone in fortnightly doses.

Announcing the decision to strike Dr Das from the medical register, Professor John Ward, chairman of the professional conduct committee, said: "Your manner of prescribing to a number of drug-dependent patients was improper and irresponsible."

Miss Jane Sullivan, for the GMC, told the hearing Mr Batchelor was found dead of methadone poisoning at his home a month after the prescriptions ended in 1997.

His two-year-old child was also found dead, having died from dehydration and starvation, the council heard.

A medical expert who assessed the case found that "the combination of infrequent pick up of the drug and general lack of monitoring constituted irresponsible prescribing."

Paranoid and pyschotic

Dr Das, who denied serious professional misconduct, also admitted prescribing drugs which led to woman addict becoming paranoid and psychotic before being sectioned under the Mental Health Act and admitted to Bexley General Hospital.

The hearing heard how Dr Das failed to monitor the mental condition of "Miss R" after prescribing ionamin tablets and methadone from June 1996 to April 1997.

Miss Sullivan said the medical expert's opinion was that Dr Das had been "irresponsible" to issue ionamin for weight loss when he was aware of the patient's long history of substance misuse, and that the prescription of ionamin over a long period had most likely caused the paronoia and psychosis.

False claims

Dr Das also admitted trying to claim money from Bexley and Greenwich Health Authority by registering 11 patients who were not with his practice, and to making false claims for Child Health Surveillance fees.

He had already been suspended from March 1995 to March 1996 for failing to visit patients in need and failing to carry out adequate examinations from 1991 to 1993.

Dr Das said: "I'm sorry that this has happened. It is a mistake and I take full responsibility for it. I think I have overlooked a few things which I shouldn't have."

He said that he had prescribed methadone to Mr Batchelor because the patient's wife was in jail and he was having financial difficulties, and ionamin and methadone to Miss R because "I thought it would help her overcome her family problems".

Lee Batchelor's mother, Sylvia said: "This doctor could have done a lot more for my son.