Britain's richest IVF doctor stripped of flagship fertility clinic licence

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Mohamed Taranissi, who is reportedly worth £38 million, has been told he broke the law by treating people at a fertility centre last year without the correct licence.

He can continue to practise but has only 21 days to appoint someone else to hold legal responsibility for the Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre (ARGC) or the clinic will close. The ultimatum was issued by the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA) in only the second case of its kind.

Mohamed Taranissi will have to give up his license for the Assisted Reproduction and Gynaecology Centre

The rebuke follows an inquiry into claims that Mr Taranissi treated patients at his second London clinic, the Reproductive Genetics Institute (RGI), during 2006 when its licence had expired. The inquiry found that he broke the law and opens the way for litigation over IVF treatment now deemed illegal by the HFEA.

At least six people who were treated at the RGI have sought advice about launching a case. Muiris Lyons, a fertility-lawyer with Irwin Mitchell, has been consulted by a group of people who want to sue and believes more may come forward. He said: "Unless it is overturned on appeal this opens up the way for people to claim that their treatment was unlawful."

Mr Taranissi said he will appeal. "This is unfair. It is an administrative issue but they are treating it as if it were about safety,î he added.

The licence committee of the HFEA said patients may have been at risk because of the "serious breachî.

The doctor has been at the centre of a row since his clinic was raided by investigators on the eve of a BBC Panorama programme. He is suing the BBC for libel and won a victory against the HFEA last month after the High Court ruled that search warrants for his premises were unlawful.

Mr Taranissi was not seeking a new licence for the RGI.