GP struck off medical register after being filmed snorting cocaine

A 45-year-old GP has been caught on camera snorting cocaine after a patient with a drug problem filmed him. He has now been struck off the medical register and will never be able to practice again.

Babak Shokouhi had been consulting a female patient who suffers from both mental health issues and drug addiction. The doctor had been giving her gifts and formed an inappropriate relationship with his patient and possibly with her flatmate.

The doctor invited his female patient and another patient to his home in Worthing, West Sussex, where they all took cocaine. His patient filmed him snorting lines of cocaine using a smartphone, which he had given to her. She then tried to bribe him.

Dr Shokouhi’s tribunal was held between 11th September and 24th September 2013 at the St James’s Buildings in Manchester. The events in question dated back to 2011.

The Fitness to Practise Panel met to consider Dr Shokouhi’s future as a practising GP regarding the allegation that he had an inappropriate relationship with a patient and that he had possessed and taken illegal class A drugs. The panel also considered the allegation that he had supplied drugs to a patient and another female.

This was the second time that Dr Shokouhi had appeared before the Fitness to Practise Panel, the first being in May 2013 concerning his inappropriate behaviour with a female patient who had laser hair removal performed in her genital area.

During the summing up of the case at his tribunal, Dr Harvey Marcovitch, the chairman of the panel members, said: “Your conduct was deliberate, deplorable and an abuse of your special position of trust.”