A PHYSIOTHERAPIST has been struck off for groping his patients.

Ashok Chitte Sreenivas, who worked at Physiomatters in Eastern Avenue close to Redbridge tube station, massaged the breasts of three women who had gone to see him for treatment after they were injured in separate car crashes.

A panel of regulatory body the Health Professions Council (HPC) heard how Sreenivas had asked patients to undress, rubbed the legs and groin of one woman, and how he made sexually suggestive comments during “treatment”.

When he found out one of this patients had complained he telephoned, texted and wrote to her asking her to withdraw it.

Panel chair John Williams said: “There was no clinical justification for performing frontal massage on the patients. The panel is satisfied that there was a sexual motivation in the actions and comments of the registrant towards all three complainants.”

“A patient is entitled to place trust in a treating physiotherapist and the registrant’s actions breached this trust. The panel considered the registrant’s behaviour to be so egregious that a finding of impairment was inescapable.”

Sreenivas, who had denied misconduct, had suggested that some of the allegations were financially motivated.