Tsui was arrested after police identified him by studying closed-circuit television video in the supermarket.

Five human placentas and 12 regulated poisons, including drugs for inducing labour, were found in Tsui's clinic refrigerator.

He appeared in court for sentencing after pleading guilty to abandoning a child and possessing poisons in his clinic.

According to a court report in the South China Morning Post, Tsui was a repeat offender who had been fined and jailed on previous occasions.

Chinese medicine is widely used in the city of seven million but practitioners are now regulated by law and must be registered before they are allowed to practise.