A doctor who sent racist messages to staff and took £100,000 from the out-of-hours GP service he ran is fit to practise, a tribunal has ruled.

Messages sent by Dr Ravindra Sondhi while he managed Croydon Doctors on Call, from July 2008 to August 2009, were offensive but the Medical Practioners Panel has ruled they were just short of misconduct.

The panel said his poor note keeping during this period did amount to misconduct but heard he has been on online courses since then and there has been no recurrence of the problems.

It ruled his fitness to practise was not impaired by the misconduct.

Dr Sondhi made £100,000 of withdrawals from the NHS-funded CROYDOC but the tribunal panel found he had got authorisation for the ‘advances’.

And they found it would not be appropriate to give the doctor, who practised at Portland Medical Centre, Portland Road, South Norwood, a warning.

Panel chairwoman Dr Elaine Melrose said: “The panel considers that there has been a departure from the standards of conduct to be expected, the panel is satisfied that your behaviour arose in unusual circumstances which have now been addressed and that there is no real likelihood of repetition.

“It has therefore determined, on balance, that it is neither necessary nor proportionate to issue you with a warning.”