A practitioner who falsely claimed to be able to treat cancer and HIV with alternative Chinese medicine has been fined in a rare court case.

Johannes ter Gast, of Derby Road, Watford, rented space at premises owned by Re-Aqua HP Limited, at Holmes Place health club, in Hendon Way, and offered services using 3,000-year-old Chinese herb recipes.

In an advertisement displayed by Guildford-based Re-Aqua HP Limited, which was fined £800 by Barnet Magistrates, ter Gast claimed these had the same benefits as modern-day treatments for cancer and HIV.

Ter Gast was fined £300 and both defendants admitted a charge of publishing an advertisement which contravened the Cancer Act 1939.

At the hearing, on October 19, the defendents had to pay an additional £1,250 between them to cover Barnet Council's costs after the authority had brought legal proceedings.

Councillor Melvin Cohen, the council's cabinet member for planning and environmental protection, was concerned the advert might have misled ill people in the borough.

He said: "We are determined to stamp out any type of advertising that might lead people to waste money on claims made without any scientific basis but for financial gain, and which may also mean that some seriously ill people might not seek appropriate and timely medical treatment."

Dr Margaret Clark, who is chairwoman of trustees at Cherry Lodge Cancer Care, in Union Street, Barnet, an independent charity working to improve the quality of life for people living with cancer, said: "Chinese medicine and complementary medicines alongside orthodox treatment can make people feel better but they cannot cure the disease.

"People are not meant to make these claims - it is dangerous and it is targeting a vulnerable group of people who are often quite desperate because they want to get better, but they don't have any scientific basis."

Under the Cancer Act 1939, it is illegal to publish claims to treat or advise on the treatment of cancer because of the risk of misleading sick and vulnerable members of the community, but prosecutions can only be brought with the express permission of the Solicitor General.

Having reviewed the council's evidence, the Right Honourable Mike O'Brien QC agreed that a prosecution was in the public interest.