LIVERPOOL’S top fertility doctor was today at the centre of an investigation over claims he advised a would-be mum how to get controversial treatment to choose the sex of her baby.

Charles Kingsland allegedly said he could pave the way for the woman to have IVF in North Cyprus where couples can choose whether to have a boy or a girl.

Such “family balancing” procedures are illegal under UK fertilisation laws.

But Mr Kingsland, who is clinical director of Liverpool Women’s Hospital’s Hewitt Centre for Reproductive Medicine, is a shareholder in a Merseyside-based firm that offers couples access to Cypriot fertility doctors who offer the treatment.

He is accused of offering a woman the £11,000 service during a private clinic at the Hewitt Centre.

The Women’s confirmed it would start an investigation to “establish facts” about what happened. It said the exact parameters of the probe would be set today.

A spokesperson for the hospital added: “The Liverpool Women’s Hospital NHS Trust does not support self-selection other than for those cases where it is allowable for reasons of genetic disorder.”