A DISCIPLINARY hearing has been told how two reporters from the Lancashire Evening Telegraph snared a dietician who peddled illegal slimming pills to desperate dieters.

The General Medical Council, in London, was told two female reporters set out to trap Sudesh Madan after being tipped off from a Royal Pharmaceutical worker who bought the drug Duromine -- an appetite suppressor -- from her.

Madan -- a child health doctor -- irresponsibly sold the slimming pills to a number of patients, while her husband supplied them to an underweight 15-year-old from the boot of his car, the inquiry heard.

Madan, of Briars Close, Rainhill, Prescott, Merseyside, who ran a clinic at Chesters Hairdressers, Lovely Lane, Warrington, admits selling Duromine tablets to five patients who were not obese, knowing this was not recommended.

Dr Madan was banned from practising as a doctor by the General Medical Council (GMC) for 18 months in November last year after an investigation by the two Evening Telegraph reporters into her clinics at the County Hotel, Blackburn.

She denies knowing that one of the patients she allegedly irresponsibly supplied to had epilepsy and another had high blood pressure, when in both cases it should not have been given. Her husband, Surendra Narain Raizada, admits selling the tablets from a car boot but says he did not know the girl he dealt with was 15 years old and underweight. He further admits supplying to a woman who was not obese.

The couple face a string of allegations amounting to serious professional misconduct before the General Medical Council's professional conduct committee in central London. It is claimed they sold the pills to different patients at just over £1 each.

It is claimed eight of these patients were not recommended to have been given the drug due to their body mass, including one who also had epilepsy.

Another patient should not have been given it as he had high blood pressure and had suffered from a depressive illness in the past.

The incidents allegedly occurred between November 1998 and October last year at various places including the County Hotel, Blackburn; a hairdressers at Bumbay Shops in Stanney, a beauty parlour at Vale Road, Rhyl, and Beautiful Nails, Lower Bridge Street, Chester.

The pair deny prescribing irresponsibly, without clinical justification and not in the interests of the patients. They further deny allegations relating to adequate patient consultations, such as sufficient examinations and advice.

Mrs Madan also denies allowing her son to sit in on one consultation and arranging for her husband to take her clinic knowing he had insufficient training or experience.

Dr Madan has run the Look Right clinics throughout the North West in hotels and beauty salons, including in Chester, Crewe, Rochdale, Oldham, Huddersfield, Merseyside, Swinton and Runcorn.

She works for the St Helens and Knowsley Community Health NHS Trust as a clinical medical officer for the child health service.

(Proceeding)