BANNED slimming pills were sold by a doctor from the North West to a man who subsequently suffered a heart attack, a hearing has been told.

And Dr Sudesh Madan's husband is also accused of selling the drug from the boot of his car to an underweight schoolgirl.

It is alleged the pair promised patients "the latest revolutionary slimming tablets" in adverts for clinics set up by them across the North West.

Dr Madan, a pediatrician, is charged with 175 counts of serious professional misconduct and also of wrongly administering the powerful appetite suppressant pills.

At a hearing before the General Medical Council in London, it was claimed that she and her husband, Dr Surendra Narain Raizada, toured the region looking for suitable venues to sell the pills.

Sites in Chester, Warrington, Runcorn and North Wales were all chosen by the Merseyside couple for their "Look Right" dieting and slimming clinics.

The tablets, Duromine, were withdrawn from use last year but despite this, nine of the couple's patients were prescribed them.

The product was taken off the market because its risks outweighed its benefits and because of suspected links to fits, epilepsy and heart problems.

Duromine can be prescribed for clinically obese patients but their body mass index (BMI) has to have reached a certain level before this can happen.

However, eight of the nine people given the pills by the pair were under this threshold.

Dr Raizada faces 38 counts of serious professional misconduct, including prescribing the drug to the 15-year-old girl.

He admits selling Duromine from his car but denied knowing the girl's age or giving the tablets to a woman who was not obese. His wife, who works as a clinic medical officer for St Helens and Knowsley Community Health NHS Trust, admits selling Duromine to five patients who were not obese, despite knowing that this practice was not recommended.

But Dr Madan denies supplying them to one patient who had epilepsy and to another who had high blood pressure.

Both refute prescribing the pills irresponsibly, without clinical justification and not in the interests of their patients. They also deny other allegations relating to patient consultation.

The pair face being struck off if found guilty of the charges.

Dafydd Enoch on behalf of the GMC said yesterday: "Dr Madan did not care what the BMI of her patients was. She prescribed pills whatever the BMI was and these clinics were, essentially, a money-making scheme.

"These allegations prove the state of her mind and the recklessness of her approach. The patients took a back seat. In every one of the nine cases, the sale of the drug was inappropriate."

He described Duromine as ". . . very much a drug of last resort and even then must only be prescribed under the strictest guidelines."

Mr Enoch continued: "There is a complete failure by Dr Madan to advise and treat appropriately. The sale of tablets was the primary role and the interests of patients were secondary.

"Demonstrated here is how far these doctors were prepared to break the rules to obtain the primary goal of sale."

It is alleged the incidents occurred between November 1998 and October of last year.

The case against Dr Madan, 52, and her 54-year-old husband, who live at Briars Close, Rainhill, Prescot, continues.