An Elstree doctor who injected thousands of children with out-of-date MMR vaccines, carried the jabs in sandwich bags, and allowed out-of-date medication to be stored in a tiny refrigerator plugged into a car cigarette lighter, the General Medical Council (GMC) heard this week.

It is claimed that Dr David Pugh also breached medical guidelines by storing the drugs in a colleague's garage for longer than recommended by manufacturers.

The 56-year-old, who ran his clinic from the Elstree Aero-Medical Centre seeing up to 250 children a week, faked the results to prove the effectiveness of the jabs even using his own daughter's blood to help falsify the records.

Pugh was later jailed for nine months after pleading guilty to four counts of forgery at Cambridge Crown Court in October 2004.

He also played on the desperation of an autistic patient's mother to fool her into paying a fortune for treatment of her son which had no medical back-up.

Kirsten Dettmer, a care standards inspector, told the GMC that cold carry bags he used were like what you would carry your sandwiches on a picnic.' She added that she was alarmed the vaccinations took place in a cabin a short distance from the runway.

Tom Kark, on the panel of the GMC, said Pugh consistently flouted medical guidelines, adding: "There was a significant danger as children were not in fact immunised as their parents believed them to be."

When Pugh went back to Australia for a six month break in June 2002, he left the centre in the hands of his practice manager, Wendy O'Keefe and two medical locums.

But Mr Kark said that an inspector in early 2003 showed that Pugh's instructions for when he was away were far from adequate.

He said: "The vaccines were stored in the home garage of Ms O'Keefe. She had no medical or pharmaceutical qualifications at all. The multiple vaccines, which were not meant to be multiple, were made up from individual vaccine doses, contrary to manufacturers guidelines.

Pugh also ran a weekly clinic at the Hillsborough Leisure Centre in Sheffield and admits reconstituting the doses but denies cold storage facilities were insufficient.

He also denies storing the vaccines for too long, having inadequate sterilisation procedures and that it was inappropriate to leave Ms O'Keefe in charge when he was away.

Pugh, who is not attending the central London hearing, is thought to be living in Australia.

He is also accused of exaggerating the effectiveness of the drug in treatment of autism on his website.

He denies that he did not act in his patients' best interest in relation to the MMR jabs and treatment and also denies misconduct and that his fitness to practice is impaired.

The two-week hearing continues.