A JUNIOR doctor who cost the NHS £1,500 for wrongly prescribing drugs for his obese flatmate has been found guilty of professional misconduct.

Stephen Perry, aged 33, kept his stamped prescription pad when he left the child psychiatry department at Oxleas NHS Trust, which covers Bromley borough, in October 2000.

He used it to wrongly write out nine prescriptions for massive doses of slimming pills and addictive tranquillisers for his friend from December 2000 to March 2002.

Perry, who now works at Chelsea and Westminster Hospital, avoided being struck off by the General Medical Council (GMC) on July 24.

He claimed he had been “manipulated” by his flatmate.

Perry told the committee he warned his flatmate he needed to lose weight and tackle his drinking and smoking problems However, his friend threatened to hurt himself if Perry did not help.

Perry, who was suffering from depression at the time, told the committee he was so concerned his friend might die that “in the end I gave in and wrote the prescriptions”.

Counsel for the GMC Fiona Horlick said some of the drugs had a street value and the quantities and combinations of drugs were “inappropriate”.

Perry, who lives in Croydon, was banned from prescribing for his friend.

He was also ordered to see a psychiatrist for two years.