A podiatrist who had sex with a patient in his consulting room, asked her for cupcakes, and pocketed payments for treatments he didn’t provide, has been found guilty of professional misconduct.

A Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal panel further found he billed the Department of Veteran’s Affairs (DVA) for 12 sessions of shockwave therapy for heel pain — double the amount that was clinically indicated — and failed to maintain adequate clinical records.

It also criticised the New Zealand-trained practitioner for offering the vulnerable patient, who had disclosed her problems to him, a receptionist job, only to change his mind and break off the relationship after confessing the affair to his wife.

“This aspect of [his] conduct was not only inappropriate in its own right but also, in our view, aggravated the potential harm involved in the personal and sexual relationship he was pursuing with [the patient],” the tribunal panel wrote.