THE cosmetic surgery industry was facing calls for tougher regulations today after a GP who performed botched liposuction operations was struck off the medical register.

Dr Thomas Norton, 46, carried out the painful procedure despite having no formal training in surgery.

One of his patients from Burnley was struck down with an infection following an operation.

Dr Norton was yesterday found guilty of serious professional misconduct following his treatment of three patients in 1993 and 1994.

Professor John Anderson, chairman of the General Medical Council's professional conduct committee, told Dr Norton that his standards of practice were 'wholly inadequate' and his treatment of patients 'extremely poor.'

Eva Watson, 56, of Sheffield, felt intense pain as fat transferred from her waist and hips was being pumped into her breasts to make them firmer.

Her sedation was not properly monitored during the now-discredited £6,000 operation and she should not have been treated using a local anaesthetic because it conflicted with drugs she was taking for hernia and heart problems.

Unsightly and unnatural abdominal scarring has left her looking like a 'Michelin Man' complete with "all the lumps and bumps" he has around the middle, Mrs Watson said in tearful testimony.

Dr Norton also carried out a £4,500 liposuction operation on an 18-stone arthritis sufferer in October 1993, who had received medical advice that she needed to lose weight.

The woman, aged 58, known as Mrs P, from the Burnley area, was treated using local anaesthetic, despite her weight making this inappropriate.

The operation could have no impact because, given her weight and age, she needed to lose 24 litres of fat to feel a difference -- just two and a half litres were removed, the committee was told.

Mrs P has been left severely deformed after being struck down by an infection following the operation. A third patient, a music teacher from Wakefield known as Mr B, had a £2,200 operation to remove fat from his lower abdomen in December 1993 but within six months his stomach had returned to its original shape and size.

Mr B went to hospital three days after the operation complaining of pain and he had developed a blister on his abdomen.

The patients were treated at the Manchester and Sheffield branches of the Transform Medical Group -- Britain's biggest chain of private cosmetic clinics.

Despite having no formal training in surgery, or past registration, Dr Norton was legally entitled to carry out the procedure using just a local anaesthetic, the General Medical Council disciplinary committee was told.

Clive Orton, president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, said the case highlighted the need for tougher regulations.

"Anybody undertaking this form of cosmetic surgery needs to be a qualified plastic surgeon, which takes six years on top of the normal training to be a doctor. That is screamingly obvious."

Dr Norton told the hearing that his treatment "fell short of what was required" and blamed his busy schedule for his "pretty sloppy'' and "unsatisfactory" medical notes of the procedures.

Dr Norton, who now works at a hair clinic in Wakefield, has vowed never to carry out another liposuction operation.

The GMC's decision to have him struck off was a "devastating blow", said a spokesman for the Medical Protection Society, which represents him.

The Committee was told that Dr Norton had been jailed in 1984 for illegally obtaining morphine.

During the hearing medical experts had condemned Transform and similar cosmetic surgery clinics for providing "lunchtime procedures" commonly advertised in newspapers and magazines.

Timothy Milward, a consultant plastic surgeon at Royal Leicester Infirmary, said that counsellors at Transform, who were supposed to inform patients about the treatment, were more like salesmen and the pre-payment system in these clinics was "aimed at maximising fees" rather than focusing on medical considerations.

The Department of Health said last night that the Government was in the process of putting in place a new regulatory framework for the independent healthcare sector, through the Care Standards Act 2000.

It will include new requirements for cosmetic surgeons including that all patients have a pre-admission appointment with the practitioner carrying out the surgery.

The surgeon must also ensure patients are suitable for the procedure, that they understand what the procedure entails and that they receive psychological counselling both before and after surgery.