A disgraced dentist struck off for conning the NHS out of £200,000 has been banned again for boasting about disgusting toilet sex romps to a terrified dental nurse. 

Shabbir Merchant, 44, of Reydon Avenue, Leytonstone, claimed to be a reformed character when he returned to dentistry in 2009, less than three years after being jailed for 18-months for fraud. 

Merchant was kicked out of the profession in 2006 after making a string of bogus claims for treatment of non-existent patients to fund his lavish lifestyle, but convinced the regulator to let him work again in January 2009, subject to strict conditions of practice

He submitted £200,000 worth of fake invoices to the NHS to fund a four-year spending spree on property in London and Manchester and a fleet of luxury cars. 

Now he has been banned again – this time for nine months, after admitting a raft of fresh charges, including poor treatment of seven patients between September 2009 and June 2010. 

He also admitted making suggestive comments to a newly-qualified dental nurse in February 2011, shortly after his marriage had crumbled. 

“Your use of inappropriate comments to a female colleague was completely unacceptable, and was compounded by the fact that you were in a professional setting, alone together and in close proximity,” said GDC panel chairman Lynne Stuart. 

Merchant bragged to the dental nurse that he was “good with his hands” and boasted of groping women in toilet sex sessions. 
 
When the horrified nurse complained, Merchant tried to force her to withdraw her statement by threatening to shame her in the Asian community.  

He sent her a letter on October 25 last year, saying: “It's with great reluctance I may have to disclose further information about you, but I can't see any other option because I have to defend myself against the GDC. 

“It is you and your family who have to live with the consequences of your actions.”

The panel accepted Merchant was going through difficult personal circumstances at the time, including a divorce and the death of his father. 

Merchant's original downfall came after submitting false invoices for non-existent patients at his Bray Dental Practice in Adelaide Road, Swiss Cottage, in London, between May 1999 and August 2003.

He invented expensive treatments for nearly 200 patients, but suspicions were raised when the GDC spotted discrepancies in his paperwork.