A 55-year-old former navy officer has been arrested in Bangkok on charges of practising medicine for 20 years without a medical licence.

The doctor, identified only as Thanaboon, 55, was arrested at a clinic in Phetchaburi Soi 31 in Ratchathewi district on Friday, police said.

The arrest followed a complaint from a local resident about a group of “fake doctors” providing abortion services at clinics on Phetchaburi Road.

When officers visited the clinic, Mr Thanaboon claimed he had a medical licence, but the officers could not find his information in the online database of the Medical Council of Thailand.

Mr Thanaboon finally admitted he had been practising without a licence since 2004. He had been operating the clinic on Phetchaburi Soi 31 for more than 10 years.

The patient rooms on the upper floors of the clinic were found to be in poor condition. 

Mr Thanaboon said he graduated with a bachelor’s degree in nursing and midwifery in 1989 before becoming an officer with the navy medical corps at a hospital in Sattahip district of Chon Buri.

He wanted to increase his income so he started taking side jobs as an unlicensed doctor at medical clinics in 2004, he said.