A naturopath will be allowed to keep calling himself a doctor after the prosecution dropped a charge of misusing the title.
Prosecutors offered no evidence at Eastern Court yesterday in their case against Dr Alexander Yuan Tai-ming.
The charge was dropped after another magistrate ruled in August that Dr Allan Chan Wai-kin, both a chiropractor and naturopath, was entitled to call himself a doctor.
Dr Yuan, 47, was told by magistrate Winston Leung Wing-chung he was free to go and collect his $5,000 bail money.
Having obtained degrees in naturopathy and chiropractic in Canada, Dr Yuan opened a health centre in Causeway Bay in 1987.
The police raided his centre on June 19 this year, accusing him of breaching the medical registration ordinance.
Yesterday he asked what protection the court could give to people frequently brought before magistrates to face the same charge.