Dr Raj Persaud, the TV psychiatrist, today admitted using plagiarised material in a book and in several scholarly articles.

Dr Persaud was appearing before a General Medical Council disciplinary tribunal charged with misconduct.

The doctor, who appears regularly on daytime TV shows such as This Morning and the BBC Radio 4 programme All In the Mind, admitted plagiarising four articles for his 2003 book From the Edge of the Couch.

He also admitted passing off other scholars’ work as his own in articles published in journals and national newspapers. But the psychiatrist denied that his actions were dishonest and were liable to bring his profession into disrepute.

The Fitness to Practise Panel hearing in Manchester was told that Dr Persaud had secretly profited from other people's hard work. Jeremy Donne, QC, outlining the case against him, said: "The articles, we say, speak for themselves and they all demonstrate the extent Dr Persaud has appropriated the work of others as his own.

"We further allege that Dr Persaud has been dishonest . . . dishonesty can be inferred from his repeated conduct in plagiarising the work of academics . . . thereby enhancing his professional reputation and standing with the public as well as enhancing himself in the press.

"His book went to the second edition and he was being paid for his articles. All of this was at the expense of the hard work and scholarship of other people."

Mr Donne also accused Dr Persaud of attempting to excuse himself, by blaming sub-editors at the Times Educational Supplement (TES) when an article he wrote in February 2005 failed to acknowledge the scholar whose work he plagiarised.

"When these columns are sub-edited a lot is often taken out and I don’t get to see it before it goes out," Dr Persaud wrote to Professor Thomas Blass, of the University of Maryland, USA, who complained the article failed to credit him.

In its published apology, however, the TES placed the onus for the mistake on Dr Persaud, accusing him of "copying".

"It’s quite clear that the TES were not taking responsibility for subbing errors in their apology," Mr Donne told the GMC panel.

It was The Sunday Times, in an article published in April 2006, that first alleged that sections of Dr Persaud’s book were plagiarised from academic articles, said Mr Donne.

At the time Dr Persaud was a director of the Centre for Public Engagement in Mental Health Sciences at the Institute of Psychiatry, Kings College, University of London, but he withdrew from this honorary position after the allegations.

He also temporarily left his role presenting All in the Mind, a weekly radio programme on mental health issues, but returned to the broadcast in 2007.

An inquiry by King’s College London in 2006 found that allegations of plagiarism against Dr Persaud "had some substance", but decided they could be addressed at departmental level without a formal inquiry and no further action was needed.

Mr Donne said that it was up to a doctor with such a prominent role in public life to set a good example. "Dr Persaud is, and at the relevant time was, one of the country’s best-known psychiatrists. As such we say he occupies a place of particular prominence."

Dr Persaud is a Gresham Professor for Public Understanding of Psychiatry.

The Fitness to Practise Panel hearing is expected to last four days. It has the power to take away or modify his right to practise medicine.

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