The General Medical Council has suspended Dr. John Stephens for a period of four months for taking money for home visits to an elderly couple.

The NHS doctor visited elderly persons' house in Harpenden, Hertfordshire and charged £150 for every visit.

Sometimes he asked for cash money and on some occasions he wanted a cheque to be made out to his daughter.

Between March 2007 and December 2008, the doctor visited 10 times the couple's home.

In the previous week, Dr. John Stephens was summoned before a panel in Manchester on charges of deceitfully accepting the payments and violating the norms of his profession.

The four-day trial began on September 20 and the GMC heard evidences regarding Dr. Stephens' unprofessional conduct during the two-year period.

The matter came into light, when the man's wife, Denise Kearns, contacted the Jonathan Vernon-Smith Consumer Programme on BBC Three Counties Radio. Mrs. Kearns said that she is satisfied with the trail results.

She further added, "We did not understand that we did not have to pay for calling the doctor out to our home to see my husband. The amount we paid snowballed".

Dr. Stephens passed out from London University in 1973 and did his schooling at Guy's Hospital Medical School.