DISABLED pensioner Sam Maggs is still waiting for justice after being fleeced of his life savings by his doctor.

The 88-year-old has not received a penny of the £15,000 he was duped out of by his GP.

And while partially-sighted Sam waits for his cash in a Hampshire rest home the doctor who conned him has been released from jail and is back living in his smart New Forest home.

GP Paul Robertson was finally struck off yesterday by the General Medical Council, the medical profession's ruling body, six years after he stole Sam's cash to fund his opulent lifestyle and finance his mountainous debts.

But as he left the London hearing yesterday he still refused to say if or when he would pay back the £17,261 he owes to the frail Totton pensioner he cheated.

Robertson, still protesting his innocence, had earlier been told by Professor John Ward, chair of the GMC, that he had "behaved dishonestly and gravely abused the trust that a vulnerable patient placed in you.

"Such behaviour cannot be tolerated," he added. Robertson's lawyer, Chris Johnstone, had told the hearing that his client had already suffered enough and should not be struck off.

But Dr Mathew Lohn, the GMC's barrister, had told the hearing how Robertson duped Mr Maggs - a patient of nearly 30 years at Robertson's Testwood Lane Surgery - into handing over his life savings saying he would put it in a high interest account.

Robertson used the cash to service his mountainous debts including a £90,000 mortgage on his home, a £44,000 loan to extend his surgery and spending sprees - including spending £7,500 at Harrod's on bedroom furniture for his home.

Mr Lohn told the hearing that despite his debts he had £80,000 in his bank account.

He was released earlier this month on licence from Ford Open Prison under an electronic tagging system after serving most of the 15-month sentence imposed for theft and deception.

Even though he retired from the one-man surgery shortly before his conviction he was still legally entitled to practice medicine.

Now widowed and living at the Farmhouse Rest home, at Watery Lane, Totton, Mr Maggs said: "I am pleased at the decision. It's what I wanted.

"He was quite a good doctor for more than 25 years. I trusted him and I had no problem giving him the money. He was my doctor and my friend.

"Now I have nothing. He was supposed to pay me last October but I haven't seen any money yet."

He added: "I met his wife the other day as I was going in to Asda and she tapped me on the shoulder and asked if I had a message for him. "I said 'yes, tell him I'm broke and he broke me'.

"He said that if he ever received the money owed to him all he wanted to do was treat the other residents at the rest home to a Chinese take away."

Pensioner Rosemary Pearce, 69, who lent Robertson £5,000 in 1984 was also delighted by the ruling although she hasn't received a penny back either despite getting a county court judgment for £200 a month.

"It won't do me any good. I don't expect to ever get my money back. The law's an ass and everyone knows it. He should pay his debts," said Mrs Pearce, of Stirling Crescent, Totton.

Robertson refused to comment when he left the hearing.

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