Melbourne doctor linked to Essendon supplements scandal figure Shane Charter banned

A Melbourne doctor entangled in a drug trafficking probe of Essendon supplements scandal figure Shane Charter has been struck off the medical register.

A Melbourne doctor charged after an investigation into the activities of Essendon supplements scandal figure Shane Charter has been banned from practising.

John Alfred Marx was charged last year by detectives from the Echo taskforce after being entangled in an inquiry into Charter’s Nicholson St, Fitzroy, clinic.

Charter’s clinic was raided in September last year by Echo investigators.

Police later alleged in Melbourne Magistrates’ Court that Dr Marx had an “arrangement” to obtain prescription medication and on-sell it to people without prescriptions.

Shane Charter’s clinic was raided in September last year.

Detective Senior Constable Lewis Vincent said police had found prescription items with blacked-out labels in packages addressed to new patients.

Those packages were allegedly being sold at higher prices than they should have been.

The Medical Board of Australia has moved to suspend Dr Marx’s registration using “immediate action” powers, a spokesman for the Australian Health Practitioner Regulation Agency said.

“This means he cannot currently practise as a medical practitioner,” the AHPRA spokesman said.

“These powers enable a board to suspend a practitioner while further inquiries take place.

“Immediate action powers are deployed in instances where it is deemed there is a serious risk to public health and safety or where it is otherwise in the public interest.”

Dr Marx was arrested and charged a month after the Echo raid on Charter’s clinic.

He is charged with failing to store a schedule-four poison in a lockable storage unit.