An eye surgeon has been struck off after admitting forging references and falsifying his CV to cover up a disciplinary offence.

Mr Partha Ghosh, of Little Aston, Sutton Coldfield, admitted inventing two references and omitting to mention a previous three-month suspension from the medical register, in order to obtain a post with the Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust.

The General Medical Council heard Mr Ghosh had falsely claimed 13 months continuous experience at Luton & Dunstable Hospital from June 1997 to June 1998.

He failed to mention a three-month suspension from December 1997 to March 1998 on a previous disciplinary offence for lying on a CV.

Mr Richard Tyson, barrister for the GMC, told the council's professional conduct committee, that Mr Ghosh had been sacked on the spot in April last year when bosses at Birmingham Heartlands & Solihull NHS Trust discovered the forgeries.

Mr Ghosh forged two letters, one purporting to be from Jonathan Dowler who now practises at Moorfields Eye Hospital in London, and one from a consultant ophthalmologist at Luton & Dunstable NHS Hospital.

Mr Ghosh had already appeared before the GMC in November 1997, after he was sacked from a senior registrar post at the Royal Berkshire & Battle NHS Trust in March that year.

False research claims

It had been discovered that a CV he had submitted to the Trust had made false research claims, Mr Tyson said.

It later transpired at the November 1997 GMC hearing that Mr Ghosh had falsified two CVs, in 1991 and in 1995.

At the first GMC hearing Mr Ghosh had expressed remorse and had promised not to repeat the deceptions, Mr Tyson told the council.

Mr Ghosh told the committee that he had been in a "desperate mental state" when he had written the false references in order to obtain the job in Birmingham.

He said he had been unable to find work after the original GMC hearing.

He told the committee: "I apologise both to the committee and the medical profession."

Sir Donald Irvine chairing the committee, said: "It is not in the public interest for you to continue to be entrusted with the responsibilities of a doctor.

"Such flagrant and repeated dishonesty, which undermine trust, has no place in the profession at any time."

Mr Ghosh has 28 days to appeal.