Doctor, 47, is struck off after he made £72,000 signing more than 400 bogus sick notes for holidaymakers who were claiming compensation through his wife’s legal firm

• Dr Zuber Bux filled in illness reports from holidaymakers claiming compensation
• He made about £72,000 writing more than 400 reports over a four year period
• He did not tell companies his wife worked for the law firm that instructed him

Dr Zuber Bux outside a Medical Practitioners Tribunal in Manchester

A doctor who made £72,000 signing more than 400 bogus sick notes for his wife’s legal firm has been struck off the medical register.

Dr Zuber Bux, 47, filled in false illness reports from holidaymakers claiming compensation from travel firms through his solicitor wife Sehana’s law business.

Over four years Dr Bux, a GP from Blackburn, Lancashire, made about £72,000 writing more than 400 reports but did not inform holiday companies or the courts that his wife worked for AMS, the law firm that instructed him.

A Medical Practitioners Tribunal in Manchester informed Dr Bux that his name has been erased from the medical register due to his ‘dishonesty’ and for the ‘protection of the public’.

Dr Bux was found to be at fault for failing to disclose his solicitor wife was a director for AMS, the solicitors firm which had commissioned him to act as a medical witness in county court claims.

He was also sanctioned over a circumcision procedure carried out on a 15-month-old boy with a heart condition.

The cases against the doctor have been found proven after a three-week MPTS hearing.

One tour operator became suspicious over a claim, concerning a holidaymaker in Mauritius in 2015, when Dr Bux failed to acknowledge a medical report compiled by a resort doctor.

The patient claimed that she had contracted food poisoning eating from a buffet-style restaurant at a resort she had stayed at in Mauritius in October 2015. She was seen by the resort doctor who diagnosed her with diarrhoea, nausea and viral acute colitis. 

Dr Bux was instructed by AMS Solicitors to prepare a medical report. Dr Bux, in considering the diagnosis, undertook a telephone consultation with the ill holidaymaker and diagnosed infective gastroenteritis as a result of food poisoning which he concluded was due to inadequate food preparation and food handling at the hotel.

Karen Smith, Operations Manager for Beachcomber Tours, handled this claim and had concerns that Dr Bux’s diagnosis differed from that of the doctor at the resort. 

She also discovered that Dr Bux’s wife was a Partner at AMS Solicitors.

Dr Bux was found to be at fault for failing to disclose his solicitor wife Sehana (right) was a director for AMS, the solicitors firm which had commissioned him to act as a medical witness in county court claims (left: Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service in Manchester)

Further cases involved one claim in Fuerteventura where a patient suffered a rash in November 2015 and was treated in hospital on the island. 

In his report dated 26 July 2016, Dr Bux diagnosed the patient with an anaphylactic reaction secondary to infective gastroenteritis caused by food poisoning.

A couple went on holiday to Benidorm in June 2015, and both complained of falling ill with food poisoning and both made a claim against TUI. 

Dr Bux produced reports dated 24 August 2016 and 25 August 2016 diagnosing both with infective gastroenteritis as a result of food poisoning which was caused by inadequate food preparation and handling, although he only spoke to them on the telephone.

Allegations were found proven in each of the holiday cases, with Dr Bux failing to declare his personal relationship with his wife at AMS and diagnosing food poisoning without sufficient evidence.

Tribunal chairman Julia Oakford said as Dr Bux’s wife was a salaried partner at AMS, managing the litigation department, it was difficult to conclude she would have no knowledge or sight of the claims.

The panel also ruled the doctor’s actions were misleading, dishonest and financially motivated.

She added: ‘The tribunal found that Dr Bux diagnosed food poisoning alone as it was in his interest to write a positive report to enable him to sustain this stream of work.’

Expert witness Nigel Zoltie also criticised Dr Bux for circumcising the 15-month-old, referred to as Patient A, in a community setting.

He said: ‘It remains my opinion that all actions were likely to put Patient A at high risk of life-threatening complications that could only managed with great difficulty in the community. 

‘For a religious procedure these risks were unacceptable, and therefore the care was seriously below standard.’

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