A PSYCHIATRIST ignored guidelines when testing drugs on volunteers, a hearing was told.

Dr Tonmoy Sharma recruited people in unsolicited telephone calls without contacting vulnerable patients' psychiatric nurses or carers, the General Medical Council (GMC) heard.

And the 42-year-old also allegedly said he was a professor when in fact he had never completed a PhD.

The hearing was told Dr Sharma pulled in thousands of pounds in research grants for the Institute of Psychiatry at Kings College, University of London, and from pharmaceutical firms wanting research on their products.

Joanna Glynn, for the GMC, said Dr Sharma gained an international reputation, particularly in the United States, for the research he was doing.

But she said in spring 2001 he was suspended from the Institute of Psychiatry after a complaint from drug maker Sanofi over a study Dr Sharma was undertaking into schizophrenia.

Dr Sharma was reinstated in August 2001.

Miss Glynn said: "After the suspension, a picture emerged of a doctor who knew the rules understanding medical research but deliberately took short cuts.

"He was guilty of gross breaches of the research standards.

"He made untrue statements and eventually the picture which I submit before you was a man who paid little more than lip service to ethical rules in research."

Colleagues were concerned about Dr Sharma recruiting participants though unsolicited telephone calls.

He failed to give details about the tests to the patient or their carers, it is claimed.

Dr Sharma only paid his volunteers a small amount for expenses.

Miss Glynn said the allegations against Dr Sharma relate to five studies involving four pharmaceutical companies.

Dr Sharma also repeatedly referred to himself as a professor, when he had not finished the PhD thesis he started at University College, London, in 1989.

His registered address is at the Clinical Neuroscience Research Centre, Twisleton Court, Priory Hill, Dartford.

He has denied the bulk of the charges against him, including allegations his conduct was dishonest, unprofessional and unethical.

Dr Sharma denies his studies were not in the best interests of patients and fell significantly short of the standards to be expected of a medical practitioner managing and conducting medical research on human subjects.

He also denies serious professional misconduct.

The hearing continues.