Britain's culture, media and sport minister has ordered an urgent investigation following claims a British doctor was secretly filmed telling how he prescribed performance-enhancing drugs to sports stars.
An investigation by the Sunday Times says Mark Bonar, claimed he treated more than 150 sportspeople with banned substances including EPO, human growth hormone and steroids.
He allegedly said he treated footballers at Premier League clubs including Chelsea, Arsenal and Leicester City along with British Tour de France cyclists, tennis players and a British boxer.
However, there is no independent evidence the sports stars received any banned treatments and the football clubs have denied the claims.
London-based Dr Bonar, 38, denied the allegations in a series of messages posted on what appears to be his Twitter account.
"The @SundayTimesNews allegations are false and very misleading. I have never had a relationship with any premier football club or player," the doctor tweeted.
He also denied prescribing hormone replacement therapy to sportsmen to enhance their performance.
"I have never prescribed Androgen therapy for the purpose of performance enhancement. I treat symptomatic men with low test levels," he wrote.
Bonar, 38, has insisted he has not breached rules laid out by the General Medical Council, the body which regulates doctors.
The GMC has confirmed that while Bonar is registered with them, he does not have a current licence to practise medicine in the UK.
The Sunday Times reported that the UK Anti-Doping (UKAD) watchdog was given information about the doctor's alleged doping activities two years ago but failed to take action to stop him.
Meanwhile, it has emerged that Bonar is facing disciplinary hearings that could see him struck off for a separate allegation of providing a patient with inadequate care, the GMC said.
Culture, Media and Sport Secretary John Whittingdale says he's asked for there to be an urgent independent investigation into what action was taken when the allegations were first received and what more needs to be done to ensure that British sport remains clean.
"There is no room for complacency in the fight against doping and the government is already looking at whether existing legislation in this area goes far enough," he said.
UKAD officials confirmed they received information from a sportsman in April and May 2014 about Bonar, but said the doctor fell outside their jurisdiction and they did not believe there were grounds to refer the case to the GMC.
In October 2014, the sportsman, who has not been named, supplied UKAD with "handwritten prescriptions" he said had been issued by Bonar, it is claimed.
The notes were given to an independent medical expert for analysis.
Nicole Sapstead, UKAD chief executive, said following those interviews and an investigation, UKAD found that there was nothing to indicate that Bonar was governed by a sport and UKAD had no other intelligence to corroborate the sportsman's allegations.
UKAD recommended the sportsman who brought the allegations to its attention gather more information and pass it on to the GMC "if appropriate".
"After assessing all the evidence, as per the National Intelligence Model, UKAD did not believe that there were grounds, at that point, to refer the case to the GMC," Sapstead said.
UKAD chairman David Kenworthy said an independent review of the allegations against it would be conducted "as soon as possible", to examine the information passed to the organisation in 2014 and to discern if the proper procedures were followed.
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