A DISGRACED South African doctor - banned in the UK and Australia during a 30-yearcareer tarnished by medical misconduct, fraud and sexual harassment - has been treating patients in Cape Town under a new name.

Two weeks ago, Dr Maurice Saadien-Raad, 63, was thrown out of his rented consulting room in the Prosper Medical Centre in Plumstead after the landlord discovered his real identity.

He had been practising there for two weeks as Dr Paul Fitzgerald, a name he legally adopted in September 2009 .

But his alleged incompetence, tardiness and habit of asking administrative staff to help him analyse test results roused suspicion within days of him arriving at work in a Jaguar.

The landlord, who declined to be named, then hired a private investigator to probe the doctor's background.

The investigation uncovered a trail of misconduct by Saadien-Raad, who claims Afrikaans and Lebanese parentage and speaks English, Afrikaans, Arabic and Xhosa.

The landlord is furious at the Health Professions Council of SA (HPCSA) for allowing Saadien-Raad to continue practising in South Africa.

"When I called to report him, they advised me that there was nothing that they can do at present. They still had him on the register. But after I queried his practice number, they sent me a fax stating that it had been de-activated on September 2 last year," she said.

A Sunday Times search of the HPCSA website showed that a Dr Paul Fitzgerald was still registered as an "active practitioner".

The British General Medical Council (GMC) banned Saadien-Raad from practising in the UK in June last year.

Dr Kgosi Letlape, acting registrar of the HPCSA, said Fitzgerald's September suspension was based on the outcome of a UK probe.

"Dr Fitzgerald was suspended [in September 2011] by the Medical and Dental Professions Board."

He said they then discovered he had submitted a late response to the allegations to the HPCSA ''and that this had not been considered by the Board'' and therefore it would ''review'' its decision.

"In line with the basic rules of natural justice, it was therefore essential to revisit the Board's decision with regard to the practitioner's suspension.''

Saadien-Raad was "then reinstated and the matter will follow due legal processes".

Saadien-Raad worked mainly as a psychiatrist at nine hospitals in various counties in the UK, including Warwickshire, Cheshire, Cumbria and Staffordshire, since 2003.

At his hearing, evidence emerged that he gave the wrong drugs to seriously ill patients and sexually harassed nurses and women he was treating.

He defrauded a depressed patient of £52 500. He also tried to force the man into a civilian partnership to enable him to remain in the UK. For the same purpose, he tried to persuade a 17-year-old girl to marry him.

UK newspaper The Telegraph published details of his offences against nurses and patients.

In Staffordshire, elderly patients suffering from dementia were given the wrong drugs, while in Cumbria, a deaf woman was persuaded to lend him £6000, the paper reported.

At South Warwickshire NHS Primary Care Trust, Rachel Willet, a nurse, was pestered with up to five phone calls a day.

Julia Grint, a nurse in the mental health unit of Leighton Hospital in Cheshire, was subjected to repeated advances and attempts to molest her.

She told The Telegraph: "He used to push me up against the walls at work and try to kiss me. I had to push him off me to get rid of him."

When she gave him a lift home following a staff Christmas party in 2004, his advances became more threatening. "He kept pulling the steering wheel to try and get me to pull in at the side of the road. It was dangerous. But he just wouldn't take no for an answer."

In a blog written in 2005, British author Nicholas Shakespeare said he tookhis seven- month-old son, Max, to Saadien-Raad for a routine jab for whooping cough, diphtheria and tetanus while he lived in Tasmania, Australia, in 2001.

He later discovered, after Max became ill, that he had been given an entirely different vaccination. He complained to the Australian authorities.

Saadien-Raad then left for England. In 2003, Shakespeare discovered that he worked in Darlington and informed the GMC of his history.

Saadien-Raad, via his lawyer, told the Sunday Times he had been informed that the HPCSA was investigating the outcome of the GMC hearing. He said: "It would be inappropriate for me to comment further while this investigation is ongoing. I look forward to having this matter resolved soon."