A prominent anti-vax GP has been banned for six years after issuing false vaccine exemptions and doctoring a letter from his state’s deputy chief health officer. 

Melbourne-based Dr John Piesse issued 149 false exemption certificates for unvaccinated children, allowing them to be enrolled in kindergartens and childcare centres, between January and August 2017. 

He also signed off on 177 Medicare vaccination forms from 2015 to 2017, which meant parents of unvaccinated children could claim financial benefits from the Federal Government, said the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. 

Dr Piesse additionally tried to recruit other GPs to provide false exemptions by sending emails to four other doctors with template copies of the documents he used to write them, it said.