Sudip Sarker: Surgeon who lied about skills banned from practise

Sudip Sarker was jailed in 2018 after being convicted of fraud by false representation

A surgeon who lied about his experience in an interview for a well paid hospital job has been removed from the medical register.

Sudip Sarker was jailed for fraud in 2018 after he lied about the number of operations he had carried out.

As a result, he was appointed to an £84,000 job at the Alexandra Hospital in Redditch, but immediately struggled.

The Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service (MPTS) said his conviction impaired his fitness to practise.

The MPTS heard evidence from the General Medical Council (GMC) which said Sarker's "lack of insight is astounding and that the doctor remains convinced that he had done nothing wrong".

Sarker, who has since been released on licence, defended himself by identifying "previously undiagnosed dyslexia as the reason for his mistake".

He also told the panel that "human behaviour was all about learning from mistakes".

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The former doctor, from Broadstairs in Kent, worked at Worcestershire Acute Hospitals NHS Trust for 14 months until his suspension in October 2012, which led to his dismissal.

Sarker told interviewers he had performed 85 keyhole bowel operations but the true figure was just six

His trial at Worcester Crown Court in 2018 heard his "gross exaggeration" in his interview had since led to the Trust facing more than £2m in medical negligence pay-outs.

Sarker maintained to the panel that his conviction "was the result of an honest mistake", and while he said he "could find no evidence that he had harmed any patients while he was employed at the Trust", the MTPS found he "put patients at risk" through his lie.

In its report, the panel said Sarker "had attempted to apportion blame on others and on his dyslexia", adding he "had shown no sympathy for the Trust or patients involved".

It concluded Sarker had brought the medical profession into disrepute and that there was a risk of repeat if he was not banned from practising as a doctor.