A DOCTOR who has been struck off for giving out excessive amounts of methadone has described his treatment methods as "completely successful".

Virendra Kumar Lakhera, 64, claims his methods prevented patients turning back to illegal drugs or getting drawn into crime to fund their heroin habits.

Mr Lakhera, of Beverley Road, Barming, near Maidstone, broke away from NHS guidelines by exactly matching his patients' heroin need with methadone - meaning he often exceeded the recommended limit of 40ml a day.

Last week the General Medical Council found him guilty of serious professional misconduct and criticised his "excessive prescribing" and "gross departures from good medical practice".

After the verdict, he said: "If you are spending £100 a day on heroin then you will need 100ml of methadone a day to cope without the drug. That is a standard fact.

"I would give them that dose for about a month and then I would gradually start to decrease the dose until they were better.

"None of my patients have complained. The treatment was working for all 20 of them. None of them were involved in crime, in prison, or with the police."

He added: "I am not upset for myself, I am upset for the people I was trying to help.

"A couple of them were crying when they gave statements for me at the hearing - they said I was the only doctor who has helped them."

Mr Lakhera was a doctor for 38 years and has lived in the Maidstone area for 24 years. He is a former doctor for Kent Police and HM Prison Swaleside, on the Isle of Sheppey.

In 1995 he received a diploma in addictive behaviour.

His treatment plan was exposed last year after an undercover BBC researcher, Neil Ansell, bought a 350ml dose of methadone and seven tablets of Temazepam from him.

The GMC hearing was told that he made the prescription without testing the researcher's urine - a standard procedure for determining whether someone is a real addict.

Mr Lakhera said: "I examined him properly, as I examined everybody else. The only thing I did not do was give him a urine test. Then I gave him what he needed. I did not know he was a fake patient. I did not have a lie detector."

He added: "The health authority was not taking any notice of me until the BBC came into the picture because I was not doing anything wrong. After they closed the Heath Road Clinic they did not say anything to me because I was not doing anything illegal."