An Old Bailey judge has called for a new regulation to cover a loophole, on traditional Chinese medicines as a Chinese herbal practitioner admitted to selling dangerous pills which deteriorated the health of a British woman.

The "doctor", who sold cancer-causing pills walked free from court here on Wednesday, even after admitting about his practice.

Patricia Booth, 58, took tiny brown "Xie Gan Wan" tablets for more than five years to treat a facial skin condition after being reassured that the pills were "as safe as Coca-Cola".

London's Old Bailey court heard, "The medicine, sold by Ying "Susan" Wu from a shop in Chelmsford, northeast of London, which did clear up her skin, had disastrous consequences".

However, Judge Jeremy Roberts ruled, "As the sale of traditional Chinese medicines was totally unregulated, there was no evidence that Wu knew of the potential harm".

Giving his ruling, Judge Jeremy, said, "It is an unfortunate fact that there is no system in this country to regulate Chinese herbal medicine retailers like Ms Wu by requiring them to be registered with an appropriate professional body or trade association".

"Somebody like Ms Wu is entitled to set up shop as a herbal medicine retailer and to operate entirely unsupervised. There may be a gap in our law here which the Government might wish to address".