A DOCTOR who was jailed for importing and conspiring to supply drugs including cocaine and MDMA is now facing being struck off.

Dr Tim Kerr, who was a doctor at Freeman’s Hospital in Newcastle at the time, was jailed last June after being convicted of importing a controlled class A drug, conspiring to supply MDMA and cocaine and conspiring to supply a class B drug.

He had qualified in 2015 at Newcastle University and was jailed for four years and eight months.

The General Medical Council (GMC) has now said Dr Kerr should be removed from the register for breaching good medical practice (GMP)

Tim Grey, on behalf of the GMC, argued that his fitness to practise was impaired because of his criminal conviction and described the doctor as “blasé” during an interview prior to his sentencing for the offences.

Dr Kerr, who was allowed to attend the tribunal on release from prison, acknowledged that he had been blasé but said he had since been able to reflect on where he went wrong, how he could change things, and said he had had the opportunity to learn of the damage drugs cause people in society.

A report issued by the Medical Practitioners Tribunal said: “Overall, Dr Kerr submitted that he accepted he is impaired but that he is doing everything he can do to make himself unimpaired.”

The tribunal found erasing Dr Kerr from the register was the only "proportionate" sanction it could impose.

A report of its findings added: “The tribunal wished to re-iterate its previous finding that there was no evidence of specific risk to patient safety, although the wider public was put at risk by Dr Kerr’s actions.

“It does however find that the breaches of GMP are, in these circumstances, fundamentally incompatible with being a doctor.”

Dr Kerr can apply to be restored to the register after five years.