By Duncan Leatherdale

Copyright bbc

The day before the appointment, Kwan had booked into a hotel in Newcastle using false details, having driven to the city with fake number plates attached to his car, the panel heard.

After giving the victim a medical examination under the guise of a community nurse carrying out health checks, Kwan injected Mr O’Hara with a pesticide – iodomethane – which caused immediate pain that Kwan dismissed as an allergic reaction, the panel had been told.

Mr O’Hara spent five days being treated in intensive care and had to have sections of dead flesh removed from his arm followed by reconstructive surgery after contracting necrotising fasciitis, the tribunal earlier heard.

Kwan had collected different poisons and ingredients bought under a shell company he had set up out his workplace, Happy House Surgery, which he told colleagues was formed to manage his properties, the tribunal heard.

He carried out the “callous” plot as he saw Mr O’Hara as an “obstacle” to Kwan’s inheritance of his mother’s St Thomas Street’ home in the event of her death, the panel heard.

The tribunal said it was “evident” Kwan had “used his medical knowledge and professional experience in order to gain the trust of [Mr O’Hara] and to carry out the crime”.

It said claims Kwan had made since, such as the giving the toxin was an “isolated unprecedented mistake” and accusing Mr O’Hara of not checking the letters were genuine, showed a “profound lack of insight and remorse” and smacked of victim blaming.

Kwan, who previously told the tribunal he wished to “sincerely apologise” for his actions, chose to make no representations about the sanction imposed by the panel.