A DOCTOR from Blackburn is set to face a medical watchdog amid claims of a conflict of interest over holiday sickness legal claims.

Dr Zuber Bux has been at the centre of controversy since a judge dismissed a Liverpool County Court compensation case, amid concerns over his links to AMS Solicitors, which had instructed him.

His wife Sehana was a partner there and lawyers representing holiday firm TUI insisted they were initially unaware of the link.

Two holidaymakers in the Liverpool case were ordered to pay court costs of £15,000 by a judge, after he rejected claims they had fallen ill while on a Spanish break, amid concerns that their statements were ‘identical’ in nature.

Dr Bux, who used to practise at Brookhouse Medical Centre in Blackburn, will now face a Medical Practitioners Tribunal hearing in Manchester over the case.

Five cases will be examined by a fitness to practice hearing, where Dr Bux was said to have been instructed by AMS via Medico Legal and Litigations Services.

He is alleged to have failed to take adequate steps to establish whether his personal relationship with an AMS director, named only as Mrs G by the MPTS, amounted to a conflict of interest.

Dr Bux is further alleged, between May 7 and September 1, 2016, to have provided the medico-legal reports in the five matters, without declaring his relationship, which would have compromised his status as an expert witness.

The MPTS has also accused the doctor of “failing to examine the patients in person and diagnosing food poisoning without sufficient evidence to do so”.

In two of the cases he is said to have failed to acknowledge the records of consultations with other practitioners.

His actions have been described as “misleading, dishonest and financially motivated” by the General Medical Council, which brings such disciplinary cases.

A fourth unrelated allegations has also been lodged as part of the same proceedings. Dr Bux, it is claimed, also failed to provide good clinical care to a patient while performing a circumcision in the community.

AMS, which is based in Preston and was referred to the Solicitors Regulation Authority over the same case, has previously issued a statement denying that Mrs Bux had any involvement in the matter.