“The registrant was dishonest over a prolonged period of time, not only to colleagues but also to academic authorities and students.

“He was the architect of all deception. Patients have an absolute right to be able to place total trust in healthcare professionals, the registrant breached this trust by his conduct.

“Further, training students when he was not qualified to do so raises the risks that gaps in his knowledge are passed on to student health professionals.”

The HPC conduct and competence committee struck him off for providing falsified information.

Gough, who was neither present nor represented at the hearing, had worked at Warrington hospital since 1995, and had been researching at the university for five years.

A spokesman for Warrington hospital said: “While this issue had no effect on his job at the Trust, which was to a good standard, staff at the hospital became suspicious about the claims being made around his qualifications and research and development work being undertaken elsewhere.

“After being asked to give evidence of his qualifications and details of his other roles elsewhere, he resigned from working at the Trust, albeit on health grounds.

“The claims about body parts – while later stated to be said in jest and proved untrue – were obviously concerning and deemed serious enough to alert the authorities at the time, and to continue with investigations after he had left the trust.”