A PARAMEDIC who was struck off for giving diamorphine to a colleague who later died has vowed to return as a paramedic after losing his High Court appeal.

James Rice of Lyme Regis has been “devastated” by a judge’s decision to dismiss his appeal against the five-year ban handed out by the Health Professions Council (HPC) but remains determined to return as a paramedic.

Mr Rice was also at the centre of the Weymouth Beach Motocross fiasco in 2009. He failed to turn up to provide medical cover as promised, prompting devastated organisers to cancel the 25th anniversary event as hundreds of people gathered on the beach.

In his High Court appeal case Mr Rice has maintained that he passed on the out of date diamorphine – the medical name for heroin – to a colleague for him to dispose of but the man was later found dead and the 42-year-old, of Applebee Way, Lyme Regis, was arrested.

He was acquitted of any wrongdoing in court but the HPC struck him off for five years and he still has four years of the ban left after his appeal was dismissed.

After the appeal he said the decision “stuck” in his throat.

He said: “It’s devastating but I’ve just got to rattle on now and do something else until I get back on the register, which I fully intend to do.”

Mr Rice owned Response Medical Services Ltd in Lyme Regis, which he set up in 2001 to provide medical services at events, and qualified as a paramedic in 2004.

He said the man worked for him and for the NHS and he expected him to dispose of the heroin in his job at the Musgrove Park Hospital in Taunton, Somerset.

Mr Rice said: “I didn’t know he was a drug user.

“They thought I gave the drugs to him for his own personal use but if you were going to do that why would you leave the labels on and incriminate yourself?

“You wouldn’t leave your signature on it.”

Mr Rice said his legal costs have risen to £1,000 so far but fears the HPC applying for their costs. He said: “But there’s no way on the face of this earth that I can pay anything.

“I’ve had my company taken away from me and my paramedic licence taken off of me too so I’ve got no job.

“There’s nothing else they can take from me.”

Mr Rice said while he is banned from being a paramedic he will apply to ambulance services to be taken on as a technician – where he would work without the need to administer controlled drugs, as his ban prevents him from doing so.