A DOCTOR who did not tell his employers he had been suspended by the General Medical Council and continued to work was found guilty by a jury yesterday.

The jury at Teesside Crown Court took a little more than an hour to return guilty verdicts on Dr Michael Donnelly, 53, who had denied charges against him.

The court had previously heard the 53-year-old was escorted from Holme House Prison, in Stockton, when the authorities learned that he had been suspended for 18 months for suspected "repeated dysfunctional and dishonest behaviour".

Stephen Ashurst, prosecuting, said Donnelly was earning £46,000-a-year on a temporary one-year contract from September 1999, at the prison medical centre, and £25-an-hour for a day's work at the Northern Slimming Clinic, in Stockton, from February 2000.

He failed to notify them that he was suspended for 18 months on August 31, 2000, and applied for a permanent medical officer's post at Holme House with the prison service in October 2000.

He attended the London suspension hearing of the GMC's Interim Orders Committee on August 31, 2000.

He told the court that he thought because he had appealed against the decision he did not have to inform his employers of the suspension and that the suspension did not come into force until the appeal process was exhausted.

Mr Ashurst said: "He continued to work for both organisations and to retain his fees. His motive was clear. If he had told the truth he knew his employment would have been in jeopardy and he would lose his income."

Donnelly, of Demesne Court, Wolsingham, County Durham, denied two charges of obtaining a pecuniary advantage and one of attempting to do so between August 2000 and June last year.

Judge George Moorhouse told Donnelly the case would be adjourned for the preparation of pre-sentence reports and warned him that custody would be an option considered by the court. He was released on bail.