An NHS doctor falsely diagnosed children with cancer to try and scare parents into paying for private treatment, a watchdog has ruled.

Dr Mina Chowdhury, 44, was found to have created “an unwarranted sense of concern” before recommending treatment linked to his private medical company in Glasgow.

He frightened three sets of parents into paying for private scans and tests offered by Meras Healthcare, telling one mother that her daughter had a stomach tumour that could spread if left untreated, before refusing to refer her to the NHS.

Two other children were given false diagnoses and recommended scans and tests linked to the firm where he was a managing director.

The paediatrician worked for the NHS in Forth Valley in central Scotland but the allegations related to his private work between March 2017 and August 2017.