Dr Alessandro Teppa worked as a urologist in Sheffield and Bournemouth

An Italian doctor whose English was so bad he needed an interpreter to help him understand patients has been banned from practising medicine in Britain.

Dr Alessandro Teppa has shown off his globetrotting lifestyle, posting photographs of himself enjoying trips to countries including Australia, Japan, Brazil and even Greenland.

But despite working as a urologist in the UK since 2012, his command of English was so poor that he could not work in hospitals without someone to translate for him.

Now the 45-year-old has become the first medic to receive a ban over his language problems under a new crackdown on doctors who come to Britain from the rest of the European Union.

A medical tribunal ruled that his poor command of English meant he posed ‘significant risks to patients’ and suspended him for nine months while he takes extra lessons.

Dr Teppa, who is from Brescia but was living in Manchester, had worked at Royal Bournemouth Hospital in Dorset and Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield.

Over the past eight years he also posted a string of pictures on his Facebook pages detailing his travel exploits, with snaps of himself in Moscow’s Red Square, Death Valley, Table Mountain, Pearl Harbor and the glaciers of Greenland.

He also recorded his travels around the England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland.

However, despite all his international travel, his command of English continued to be a cause for concern, a medical tribunal was told.

After rules on standards of English were extended to EU doctors last year, the General Medical Council ordered Dr Teppa to sit a test under the International English Language Testing System - but he failed it twice.

Taking the test last November and again in February he failed to achieve the minimum score of 7.5 in listening, writing and speaking, the hearing in Manchester was told.

Italian doctor Alessandro Teppa, who has been disciplined for poor English - despite travelling across the world, is pictured with a lookalike of Diego Maradona in Buenos Aires in Argentina

Dr Teppa looks at his dinner in Cairo, Egypt. The doctor has been struck off after failing his English test

Italian doctor Alessandro Teppa, pictured here on a camel during his travels in Cairo Egypt, is now back in Italy

In the writing category, his score was just 4.5.

During the Medical Practitioners Tribunal Service hearing in Manchester, he unwittingly demonstrated his struggles, messaging a friend to say ‘it’s difficult to meet you, but I have to come back in a month for continuing the trial’.

Dr Teppa is now back in Italy and taking additional English language lessons in between shifts at work, the hearing was told.

Panel chairman David Flinter said: ‘The serious nature of Dr Teppa’s lack of required English language skills would lead to considerable difficulties in his ability to communicate with patients and colleagues.

A medical tribunal ruled that Dr Teppo, pictured left in London and Japan, right, had such a poor command of English, he posed ‘significant risks to patients’

Dr Alessandro Teppa has a globetrotting lifestyle, shown here in Moscow, but struggles to speak English

Dr Teppa, seen here on a horse in Columbia, has become the first medic to receive a ban over his language problems under a new crackdown on doctors

Dr Teppa, pictured here near the Palestinian West Bank, was forced to sit a test under the International English Language Testing System - but he failed it twice

‘In the light of this, the panel considered that there would be significant risks to patients.’

Suspending his licence to practise in Britain for nine months, the panel told him: ‘The standard of your English is insufficient to support safe and effective medical practice in this country.’

The serious nature of Dr Teppa’s lack of required English language skills would lead to considerable difficulties in his ability to communicate with patients and colleagues. GMC panel lead, David Flinter

But accepting his language skills could be improved, they ordered him to return for a further hearing at the end of the ban to assess his progress.

The GMC was last year given the power to require that EU doctors had adequate English after language problems were blamed over 70-year-old David Gray’s death from a fatal morphine overdose at the hands of German doctor Daniel Ubani in Cambridgeshire in 2008.

In just over 12 months it has refused licences to 800 doctors from the Continent who have failed to show they have adequate proficiency in English.

Earlier this week a Polish medic, Dr Tomasz Fryzlewicz, became the first to appear before a medical tribunal accused of an inadequate command of English.

But while the panel backed the allegation, it allowed the cardiologist to continue practising in the NHS provided he receives close supervision and takes extra English lessons – a decision branded ‘disappointing’ by the GMC.

Dr Teppa, who is from Brescia but was living in Manchester, had worked at Royal Bournemouth Hospital in Dorset and Hallamshire Hospital in Sheffield

The doctor, who is having English lessons in Italy, had been across the world with visits including Columbia

Facebook pictures from globetrotting Italian doctor Alessandro Teppa show him in Death Valley