A HAMPSHIRE doctor pocketed thousands of pounds by authorising scores of cremations without proper paperwork, a tribunal has been told.

Dr Stuart Edwards ignored guidelines brought in following Harold Shipman's mass murder of hundreds of patients and tried to cover up what he had done, heard the General Medical Council.

When he was asked to stop the practice Edwards, of Locks Road, Locks Heath, lied to senior colleagues including a vicar and the medical director of Queen Alexandra Hospital in Portsmouth, it is claimed.

The hearing was told the guidelines were introduced to stop doctors self-certificating death.

Edwards, who qualified in 1993, is attending the central London hearing.

For more on this story see today's city final edition of the Daily Echo.