A UK GP who ran a “report-writing factory” has avoided going to jail over one of his expert medical reports about a taxi driver’s whiplash injuries from a car accident.

Last year, Dr Asef Zafar was given a six-month suspended sentence for contempt of court over his role in a medicolegal report that embellished the taxi driver’s injuries.

However, earlier this month the Court of Appeal ruled the sentence was too lenient and that the GP should have gone to jail for amending the medical report without examining the patient for a second time.

But it upheld the original sanction because there was no legal guidance on sentencing expert witnesses for making a “false statement” at the time the ruling was made.