A consultant doctor who concealed a string of stalking and death threat convictions from regulators has been erased from the UK medical register, after a tribunal found he had deliberately and repeatedly lied to secure work within the NHS.
Dr Salah-ud-Din Taj, who qualified from the University of the Punjab in Pakistan in 1996, has been struck off after a Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service panel found he had “intentionally misled” the General Medical Council by concealing 14 previous convictions when applying to work in the UK. The offences, which included stalking and threatening to kill, were committed in Australia, where Dr Taj worked as a medical registrar between 2007 and 2017. He went on to practise as a Locum Consultant in Acute Medicine at Lincoln County Hospital from 2022, before his criminal history was uncovered.
A Pattern of Dishonesty Across Two Applications
Dr Taj’s convictions stemmed from offences committed over a four-month period, for which he was tried at the Magistrates Court of Victoria in Melbourne and sentenced to a one-year community correction order, including 150 hours of supervised unpaid work. When he applied to work in the UK in 2018, he was directly asked whether he had any prior convictions or cautions and answered “no.” A year later, applying for a post with North Cumbria University Hospitals NHS Trust, he lied again, though this time he included a note referring vaguely to a “minor incident” involving himself and his victim in Australia. Even then, the tribunal found, Dr Taj “consistently sought to minimise” the true nature of his offending.
Dr Taj later told the tribunal he had not declared his conviction because it “had not involved any physical element, did not touch upon his clinical practice and did not result in a custodial sentence,” and claimed he had been “confused” by the relevant question on the application form.
Further Deception Uncovered During GMC Investigation
The GMC’s investigation, launched after Dr Taj’s convictions came to light, also found he had misrepresented his work history, claiming to have practised exclusively in Australia between 2007 and 2017 when he had in fact taken breaks to return to Pakistan during that period.
Tribunal Finds Deliberate, Not Accidental, Dishonesty
The tribunal concluded that Dr Taj’s conduct amounted to fundamental dishonesty rather than a series of mistakes, finding his repeated failures to disclose his criminal history were deliberate. It stated: “The Tribunal considered that even a lay person, with little understanding of the law, would understand that a conviction for 14 offences, spanning a period of four months was serious and should be declared to a regulator.” The panel noted that Dr Taj’s professional background made his conduct harder to excuse, adding: “Dr Taj was an experienced professional who had been through registration in Australia, where disclosure of his conviction had initially not been made. As a result, Dr Taj should have been fully aware of the importance of providing full disclosure of his conviction.”
On the inaccuracies in his employment history, the tribunal found: “The Tribunal was satisfied that Dr Taj’s supplying of inaccurate information with regard to his employment history was not simply a mistake but intentionally misleading.”
Erasure Deemed the Only Proportionate Sanction
Although the tribunal accepted that Dr Taj had expressed remorse, it found his explanations continued to downplay the seriousness of his actions, a factor that weighed against imposing a lesser penalty. Having considered whether a suspension might be sufficient, the panel concluded that only erasure from the medical register could adequately address the seriousness and persistence of his dishonesty. It said: “The Tribunal concluded that given the seriousness of its findings and in light of the Guidance, the sanction of erasure was appropriate and proportionate in this case. The Tribunal was satisfied that any lesser sanction would fail to maintain public confidence in the profession, and promote and maintain proper professional standards and conduct for the members of the profession.”
What the Ruling Means
Under GMC rules, doctors are required to declare all criminal convictions and cautions to regulators, regardless of whether they relate to clinical practice, unless they fall within limited legal filtering exemptions. The tribunal’s ruling means Dr Taj’s name has now been erased from the UK medical register, barring him from practising as a doctor in the country unless he successfully applies for restoration at a future date.
