A DISGRACED doctor who was struck off for using his dead relatives' blue badges has been prosecuted again - for continuing to practise as an osteopath in Bournemouth.

The General Osteopathic Council said Nigel Graham unlawfully described himself as an osteopath despite being removed from the register in 2016.

As previously reported in the Daily Echo, the UK regulator of osteopaths had found Graham guilty of ‘unacceptable professional conduct’ for his ‘repeated offences involving the avoidance of fixed penalty notices’ and his ‘persistently dishonest use of disabled persons’ blue badges’.

He was removed from the register with effect from June 22 2016 by committee members who noted his behaviour was ‘despicable’ when he appeared in court.

However, Graham appeared at Willesden Magistrates’ Court on Tuesday to plead guilty to one count of using the title of ‘osteopath’ while not registered with the GOsC, contrary to Section 32 of the Osteopaths Act 1993.

The court heard Graham called himself a ‘Consultant Osteopath’ on his LinkedIn page online after being removed from the register.

Despite a warning from the GOsC that by using the ‘osteopath’ title he was committing a criminal offence, Graham still did not change the page, a spokesman said.

Graham, of Southbourne, who provided services in North Finchley in London and at a practice in Miller Gardens, off Chilcombe Road, in Southbourne, was sentenced to a conditional discharge of 12 months and ordered to pay costs of £200 to the GOsC.

A spokesman for the GOsC said: “Patient safety is the primary purpose of restricting the use of the osteopathic title. The GOsC ensures that the practitioners on its register are safe and competent osteopaths who follow strict codes of conduct.”

In July 2015 Southampton magistrates heard the 55-year-old used his mother’s disabled blue badge in the city 12 years after she had died.

He also admitted trying to avoid fines relating to previous uses of his father-in-law’s blue badge by claiming he was with his disabled relative - investigations revealed he was also dead.

Graham was sentenced to 16 weeks in prison, suspended, for each of the counts with magistrates describing it as a “despicable offence” which was carried out over a number of years.

On one occasion, Graham, illegally parked in a disabled space outside a court while he was inside admitting the misuse of blue badges.