GWENT GP Madhup Mehrotra wept as he pleaded with the General Medical Council to be allowed to return to practice.

Dr Mehrotra, (pictured) 52, was struck off the medical register in 1996 following his conviction on a number of charges of theft and obtaining property by deception and sentenced to a total of three years imprisonment.

A jury found he had obtained about £150,000 by cashing benefit books from former patients who had died when he was a director of the Castledene nursing home in Newport.

Yesterday the committee refused to allow him to return to practice immediately, but opened the door for him to be restored to the Medical Register in the near future.

They said that at a further hearing to be held on an unspecified date, Dr Mehrotra would have to provide independent evidence about his professional competence, good character and personal health.

Two years ago Dr Mehrotra, formerly registered of St Brides Medical Centre, Tredegar House Drive, Duffryn, Newport and now of Penny Crescent, Malpas, Newport, applied to return to medicine, but his plea was rejected.

"I wish I had had the wisdom at the time not to make such a stupid mistake," he told the GMC's professional conduct committee, sitting in Central London yesterday. "It was a grave one and I should not have done it, but I did and I can't overlook my past."

Earlier, his counsel, Richard Partridge, said the doctor was a popular figure in the Newport area.

He was an active member of the Samaritans, did prison visiting and was instrumental in the fundraising efforts of the Hindu Cultural Association in Wales, to build their own headquarters in Newport.

Committee chairman John Shaw said that his offences were of the most serious kind.