Doctor who 'doped 140 sports stars' axed from clinic

Hundreds of people have signed a petition calling for doping in sports to be made a criminal offence.

The petition on change.org was started by the former Tory sports minister Lord Moynihan.

A competitor who deliberately cheats "shreds the dreams of clean athletes with every needle they inject", it says.

So far more than 300 people have signed the appeal, which will be delivered to the Prime Minister David Cameron and John Whittingdale, secretary of state for culture, media and sport.

Mark Bonar, the doctor at the centre of the Sunday Times doping allegations scandal, had his professional services dispensed with on Friday.

The Omniya Clinic said it had terminated its working relationship with Dr Bonar after it was revealed he does not have a licence to practise medicine in the UK.

The chief executive of the General Medical Council has welcomed a newspaper investigation into doping claims involving a British doctor.

"I would like to thank the Sunday Times for bringing these issues to our attention", Niall Dickson said.

The UK Anti-Doping watchdog (Ukad) has said it is "deeply concerned and shocked" by the claims a British doctor has doped sports stars.

The Sunday Times reported that Dr Mark Bonar had been secretly filmed discussing prescribing banned performance-enhancing drugs to the "elite" sports professionals.

Ukad chief executive, Nicole Sapstead, confirmed the publicly-funded body had received allegations involving Dr Bonar in April and May 2014 during interviews with an unnamed sportsman.

Chairman David Kenworthy said an independent review of the allegations against it would be conducted "as soon as possible", to examine the information passed to them in 2014 and to discern if the proper procedures were followed.

"Ukad is a publicly funded body and it is correct that it be held to account for any actions it takes. That accountability rests with the independent board," he added.