Doctor temporarily suspended from register over parking ticket debts

Dr Ali Raza Janjua was also found to have lived at hospital accommodation in the city for a year without paying rent.

He also failed to turn up for several shifts in 2010 while working in Leeds.

A Medical Practitioners’ Tribunal Service (MPTS) hearing found his fitness to practise as a doctor was impaired, with the hearing panel saying: “The public expects doctors to be trustworthy and honest at all times.

“Your dishonesty and lack of probity undermines public confidence in you as a doctor and has the potential, if unmarked, to undermine public confidence in the profession.”

Dr Janjua was employed at Leeds Teaching Hospitals NHS Trust from 2008, although he left in 2011.

The hearing found that between August 2009 and September 2010 he occupied hospital accommodation when not entitled to do 
so.

He said that for the previous year he believed he was overpaying for accommodation, so thought he was not required to pay rent from August 2009 in compensation.

“The panel has heard that, despite giving assurances on several occasions that you would pay the sum due, you failed to do so until April 2013, shortly before this hearing,” a report of the hearing said.

The panel was also told that Dr Janjua knew he needed a £30-a-month permit to park in the hospital trust’s grounds, but failed to get one.

“You accumulated over 100 parking fines of £60 each in this way,” it said.

This debt was only paid just before last week’s hearing.

The MPTS panel decided that a period of suspension was necessary and rejected calls for Dr Janjua to be struck off.

However it added: “You should be in no doubt that, as a doctor, you are required to behave in a trustworthy manner at all times and to take full responsibility for your employment and financial affairs.”

Dr Janjua was suspended from the register for four months, which will begin in August.