He ended up under investigation and then on trial for having asked three thousand euros from an oncology patient suffering from breast cancer who wanted to be operated on by him, money that the woman would have had to pay even if the operation had been performed. “under the NHS”.

The Court of Napoli sentenced the doctor Renato Thomas, at the time of the facts (October 4) director of the Mediterranean Clinic of Napoli, deemed guilty of extortion by the judges of the third criminal section (panel presided over by judge Sergio Aliperti).

The doctor was also sentenced to pay damages to the Clinica Mediterranea (to be settled in a separate proceeding) and banned from holding public office for five years. At the end of his closing speech, Deputy Prosecutor Henry John Woodcock (who has been with the Naples DDA for about a year) had requested a sentence of 4 years and 8 months for the defendant.