A PHARMACIST jailed for cheating the NHS out of thousands of pounds was criticised yesterday for wasting a disciplinary board's time when he failed to win the right to practise again.

Zia Ul Haq, 37, of North Road, Spennymoor, was sentenced to 21 months for his part in a long-running scam involving a County Durham GP.

Over a six-year period, while working at M&M Chemists, Shildon, he accepted bogus prescriptions from GP Ashok Bhagat as payment for drugs and oxygen cylinders.

Ul Haq admitted claiming at least £17,000 for delivering the cylinders when he pleaded guilty at Teesside Crown Court to conspiracy to defraud and false accounting.

Six months after his conviction, he was struck off by the Royal Pharmaceutical Society, which yesterday turned down his application to have his name restored.

Ul Haq, who represented himself, said that his co-operation with various courts and his extra study to become a teacher of pharmacy were worthy reasons for his re-registration.

He said: "I admitted both charges and took the consequences. The GP involved denied everything. He will be ready to practise before I will."

But Lord Fraser of Carmillie QC, chairman of the society's statutory committee, said that the case had been one of the most serious he had dealt with.

He said: "There is no good reason why we should entertain this application so early."

And he warned Ul Haq not to waste the committee's time with another premature application.

After the hearing, Ul Haq vowed to reapply in two years.

He said: "I'm going to carry on with my teaching course. I feel as if I have got a bit further forward."

Dr Bhagat, of School Aycliffe, who served a nine-month prison sentence for his part in the fraud and was later given an 18-month suspension by the General Medical Council, faces a full GMC hearing later this year.