A SLIMMING clinic doctor sold tablets labelled Duromine -- a drug which has lost its licence because of heart risks -- to Evening Telegraph reporters.

Today we can reveal that the General Medical Council is investigating Dr Sudesh Madan (pictured), of the Look Right clinic, after she sold capsules resembling the unlicensed drug to reporters Victoria Eglington and Amy Binns at the County Hotel, Blackburn.

Miss Eglington wrote on the clinic's medical questionnaire that she was epileptic and taking drugs to control her seizures but she was still sold the tablets, which are related to amphetamines and can cause fits and epilepsy.

Student nurse Judith Duckworth, of Knuzden, Blackburn, asked the Telegraph to investigate after she was sold capsules labelled Duromine at the fortnightly clinic on March 15.

After taking them for a week, she said she felt so ill she looked them up in her textbooks and then asked a pharmacist about them.

Mrs Duckworth said: "The pills made me lose my appetite but they stopped me from sleeping and made me feel really anxious and jittery."

She decided to confront Dr Madan when she found out from the Medicines Control Agency that Duromine was due to lose its licence in early April.

Mrs Duckworth said she showed Dr Madan the MCA's fax at the County Hotel. She said: "Dr Madan just said the pills were fine and that you could still buy them in other countries."

The doctor gave Mrs Duckworth her money back in return for the unused pills. Dr Richard Spiers, director of Loughborough-based manufacturers 3M, said the firm was no longer allowed to promote the drug. He said 3M had contacted all their wholesalers asking for the tablets to be returned to them to be destroyed.

The MCA sent guidelines on April 5 to GPs, pharmacists and diet specialists nationwide, saying no new patients should be given the controlled substance and anyone taking them should be weaned off them over one or two weeks.

But at the County Hotel, Dr Madan sold reporters posing as new patients 14 capsules each on April 26 and gave repeat doses of the drugs labelled Duromine on May 10.

She charged £20 each time. The wholesale price of Duromine published in the British National Formulary is £1.50 for 30 capsules.

Neither reporter asked for appetite suppressants, but she suggested the drugs to help them stick to a healthy-eating diet on a hand-out sheet. She said they could cause lack of sleep and a dry mouth.

Despite Royal College of Physicians guidelines that they should only be used to treat clinically-defined obesity, she also sold the drugs to patients who were within a normal weight range for their height. Dr Madan, who runs at least eight clinics throughout the North West, saw 12 patients during the first hour of the three and a half hour session at the County Hotel on May 10. She also prescribes licensed drugs and herbal remedies.

When asked about her activities, Dr Madan at first denied selling Duromine because she said she couldn't buy it, but, when told she had sold tablets labelled Duromine to Telegraph reporters, she said she admitted the sale and maintained she always explained its effects to patients.

Dr Madan, who is based in Eccleston, St Helens, said: "As a doctor, I can prescribe anything if I explain the risks."

When told she had sold Duromine to an epilepsy sufferer, she said: "I don't remember it on the form, there must have been some reason. I must have explained everything to her."

During later phone conversations she refused to comment and said: "I don't think I have done anything wrong."

Simon Haywood, senior caseworker for the General Medical Council, said he had been investigating Dr Madan's clinics for a year and had been contacted by several GPs who were concerned about their patients taking slimming pills prescribed by her.

He said: "People are often not willing to give evidence because they want to carry on getting the drugs. I'm pleased that you have done this because, hopefully, we will now be able to get things moving." Pharmacist Sharuna Reddy, prescribing adviser to the East Lancashire Health Authority, said the drug had been very rarely prescribed by NHS doctors even when it was licensed because it was not believed to be effective.

She said: "It can help with weight reduction but very often people who lose weight regain it. People become dependent on it because they don't want to put the weight back on."

Ms Reddy said the drug could cause side effects including heart problems, and withdrawal symptoms such as depression and anxiety.

She said anyone who wanted to stop taking slimming pills should see their doctor so any problems could be monitored.

Christine Burne-Cronshaw, of the Corus group which owns the County Hotel, said: "As far as the hotel is concerned, this is purely a meeting room booking and we have no knowledge of what takes place.

"If it is proven that something unethical is taking place, we will review the situation with regard to future bookings."