A doctor who secretly gave anti-impotence pills to patients has been told he will not be able to practice medicine for a year.

Dr Valiyakalayil Ramu , from Borden, wrote false prescriptions for a drug used to combat erectile dysfunction for men who visited his surgery in Halfway.

The GP wrote out prescriptions for Cialis in the name of a 65-year-old patient who was not aware of the prescriptions.

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Ramu gave away 44 tablets of Cialis to the three young men who could not afford the pills and were trying to hide their impotence from their wives.

He was arrested in May 2007. After an investigation by counter fraud officers appeared before Sittingbourne Magistrates’ Court in September. He admitted two charges of obtaining property by deception and one of fraud by false representation.

He was ordered to serve 200 hours of community service and will pay £600 costs.

In July last year he was suspended from practicing while an investigation was carried out by the General Medical Council pending a hearing by its fitness to practice panel.

The panel heard Dr Ramu wrote his first fake prescription on October 5, 2006, and got eight of the pills from a pharmacy.

Ramu was suspended for a further 12 months.

Attempts to contact Dr Ramu for comment were unsuccessful.