A DOCTOR who did not have a full driving licence fled the scene of a crash - leaving a woman trapped in the wreckage of her car.

Instead of stopping to offer the woman first aid, Dr Arunkumar Ganesan, 31, drove home after causing the collision in Darlington.

The driver of the other car, Audrey Wilks was left trapped in the wreckage of her overturned Vauxhall Agila.

Yesterday, he was officially reprimanded by the General Medical Council, but the hearing stopped short of ordering him to be struck off the medical register.

A former specialist in orthopaedics and trauma at Darlington Memorial Hospital, Dr Ganesan was later convicted of a string of driving offences at South Durham Magistrates' Court.

Dr Ganesan, now of Wellington Road, East Ham, east London, admitted driving without due care and attention, driving without a licence and failing to stop after an accident.

He was fined £500 and £35 court costs following his court appearance on January 13 last year.

The doctor was also given six penalty points on his licence following the accident in Hollyhurst Road, Darlington in the early hours of October 24, 2002.

James Rowley, for the GMC, said Dr Ganesan, a father of one, was driving to a nearby shop in his Volkswagen Passat when the accident happened.

Dr Ganesan failed to stop and continued to his nearby home from where he alerted the emergency services.

Mrs Wilks, who escaped serious injury, was treated at the scene by paramedics before being taken to the Memorial Hospital.

Dr Ganesan, who is now based at the Royal London Hospital in Whitechapel, did not have a full UK licence and his Indian driving licence had also expired.

Mr Rowley said the doctor's failure to tend to the injured driver was a complete failure of good medical practice.

Dr Ganesan wrote a letter to the GMC saying he panicked after thinking he had done serious injury to the motorist.

Giving evidence at the GMC in Manchester yesterday, he said: "I was in shock. I was not thinking right. I was extremely fearful and wanted to get some help.

"To this day, when I think back, I feel very, very sorry.

"I still can't think why I did this and why I decided to go home and call and not stay there and provide medical assistance."

Roland Ferguson, of the GMC, told him: "The behaviour for which you were convicted constitutes a departure from the standards accepted of a member of the medical profession."