A locum gynaecologist who sparked a major scare by treating up to 15,000 women nationwide after lying about his qualifications has lost a High Court fight to revive his career.

Nigerian-born Henry Ogheua Akpata, 64, from Streatham High Road, lied on his CV to land locum posts in obstetrics and gynaecology at 35 hospitals across the country over a period of seven years between February 1996 until his arrest in October 2003.

Although Akpata was medically qualified, and could work in the field under supervision as a junior doctor, he was not a member of the Royal College of Obstetrics and Gynaecologists as he had claimed on his CV, having failed exams.

After his lies were exposed an NHS helpline was set up for women he had treated.

In September 2004 he was jailed for a year after being convicted at Birmingham Crown Court of 10 counts of false accounting, relating to "a persistent and deliberate fraud" he carried out at work leading to him being overpaid £18,000.

After serving his sentence the General Medical Council (GMC) told him his registration to practice medicine was being "erased" following findings against him at a hearing a month earlier.

The GMC declared he was unfit to practise because he lied about his qualifications and due to his false accounting convictions.

Akpata asked the High Court to overturn the GMC's ruling yesterday and grant him a fresh hearing.

His lawyers argued the GMC panel had been wrong to refuse his application for an adjournment of the case and that had therefore deprived him of a fair hearing.

They also claimed the panel got their facts wrong and the erasure of his name from the register was "unfair and disproportionate."

But Mr Justice Beatson refused his appeal and said Akpata was "unfit to be on the register because of his criminal conviction and the inaccuracies on his CV".

Among Akpata's many posts around the country, he spent time at St Thomas' Hospital, which treats patients from Lambeth.

He also worked at Epsom General Hospital.

Ealing Hospital NHS Trust, for whom Akpata last worked in August 2003, led the investigation into his behaviour.