Disguise doctor who tried to kill mother's partner with poison jab struck off from being a GP
A Sunderland GP who dressed in disguise to try and kill his mother’s partner in a row over an inheritance has been banned from working as a doctor.
Thomas Kwan, 54, a GP at a practice in Sunderland at the time of his crime, sent bogus medical letters to the man, claiming he was due to have a Covid booster jab.
Kwan arranged to visit the man at his Newcastle home on January 22.
He wore a disguise – including a wig and fake facial hair – along with a medical mask so that his mother and her then partner, who is in his 70s, wouldn’t be able to recognise him.
In the hours after receiving the injection, the victim became seriously unwell, with a serious skin condition developing around the injection area. He was later admitted to hospital after initially visiting his GP.
On presenting several letters for the medical appointment at which he was given the injection, hospital staff discovered they were bogus and informed Northumbria Police.
The victim has since had to have numerous operations, including skin grafts to repair the extensive damage the poisoning caused to his body. He has been left with life-changing injuries following the incident.
As part of the subsequent police investigation, Kwan was identified as having driven from his home in the Ingleby Barwick area of Stockton to a hotel in Newcastle city centre in the early hours of January 22 before the appointment. Officers uncovered that Kwan had used fake licence plates on his vehicle during the journey to Tyneside.
Kwan was arrested at his home address and subsequently found on his computer was a ‘poisoner’s handbook’ and a book on guidance for murder investigations which had both been downloaded.
Following a trial at Newcastle Crown Court Kwan, who lived in Ingleby Barwick, Stockton-on-Tees, and worked in Sunderland, was jailed for 31 years and five months after admitting attempted murder.
Last month (September 2025) Kwan appeared before the General Medical Council where he argued his actions were unrelated to his work as a doctor and he had had a previously "unblemished" career.
The allegation put before the panel was that Dr Kwan, after researching poisons and preparing false documentation, “entered his Mother’s home in the disguise of a community nurse working for the NHS. His intention was to administer a lethal dose of poison to her long-term partner, under the pretence of administering a Covid-19 vaccination booster”.
The statement went on to add: “Dr Kwan injected a dose of iodomethane, a substance predominantly used as a fumigant pesticide, which was highly toxic if ingested, inhaled or absorbed.”
The tribunal panel said it was "evident" Kwan had "used his medical knowledge and professional experience in order to gain the trust of the victim and to carry out the crime".
The Tribunal was also of the view that Dr Kwan had “not provided any evidence of genuine remorse, reflection or remediation”.
After considering the evidence, the panel determined that “in light of the seriousness of Dr Kwan’s conviction, his current custodial sentence and the sanction imposed, it is in the public interest to make an order suspending his registration with immediate effect”.
The Tribunal concluded that behaviour “such as this breached a fundamental tenet of the profession, namely that doctors should act with integrity and within the law”.
The panel also cited the decision was necessary to “uphold and maintain professional standards and maintain public confidence in the profession”.