A former GP who has been jailed for attempting to murder his mother’s partner with a fake Covid jab has admitted another plot to kill him using poisoned bottles of wine.
Thomas Kwan, who is already serving a 31 year sentence for the attempted murder of 73-year-old Patrick O'Hara, appeared at Newcastle Crown Court to admit a previous plan to kill him after setting up a fake wine club.
Kwan further admitted to administering a noxious substance to Torquil Gundlach, who also consumed some of the wine which was laced with thallium - a highly toxic metal.
The 54-year-old contacted Mr O’Hara via the fictitious Northern Wine and Drinks Tasting Gentlemen’s Club and sent him between 18 and 21 bottles, some of which were poisoned.
Mr O’Hara drank some of the bottles and gifted one to Mr Gundlach.
Prosecutor Peter Makepeace KC told the court two bottles contained poison and there was evidence that a third, which was laced with thallium, caused Mr O’Hara to fall ill.
The admission comes after last year the Sunderland-based GP was convicted of trying to kill Mr O’Hara in a separate plot that left the 73-year-old with a rare flesh-eating disease.
A judge described the January 2024 attack –which saw him enter his mother’s home wearing a disguise – as an “audacious plan to murder a man in plain sight” which was motivated by financial gain.
The judge said Kwan tricked his victim and his estranged mother using “good forgeries” of NHS letters, adding: “By your masquerading, you struck at the heart of public confidence in the health care profession.”
She said there was “no doubt” he plotted to kill Mr O’Hara for financial gain over the inheritance he felt entitled to.
“You knew that your mother had left the house at St Thomas Street to her children, but you also knew that she had changed her will to give Mr O’Hara a life interest in the house,” the judge said.
“By killing him you would have removed the obstacle which lay between you and your immediate recovery of your share in the property following your mother’s death in the event of her pre-deceasing him.”
Kwan, who was obsessed with money and developed a deep knowledge of poisons, planned his murder bid for months by writing fake letters, supposedly from the NHS, offering Mr O’Hara a home visit.
Disguised as a community nurse called Raj Patel, he used fake number plates and wore a long coat, a medical mask and tinted glasses as he told Mr O’Hara he needed a Covid booster.
The fake vaccination he administered caused intense pain, making it seem as though his arm was on fire.
Mr O’Hara needed weeks of hospital treatment after developing a flesh-eating disease which required plastic surgery. He said the attack left him “a shell of an individual”.
Police scoured CCTV and were able to track Kwan, still disguised as a nurse, back to a city centre hotel and then to his home in Ingleby Barwick, Teesside.
In his garage, officers discovered an array of dangerous chemicals which the GP had amassed. On his computer, they found instructions on how to make the chemical weapon ricin.
The wine plot spanned September 2022 to January 2024, Newcastle Crown Court heard.
Mr Makepeace KC said the wine club Kwan created “does not exist”. He sent Mr O’Hara a mixture of poisoned and uncontaminated bottles.
“Genuine bottles were sent to lure the victim into a sense of security,” he explained.
Kwan, who appeared via videolink from maximum security HMP Frankland, will be sentenced on 30 January.
