Kurt BBC Information Investigations
A self-styled “magnificence advisor”, whose movie star consumer record contains Katie Value, is providing doubtlessly harmful beauty procedures to shoppers and handing over treatment illegally – a BBC investigation has found.
Ricky Sawyer specialises in liquid Brazilian butt-lifts (BBLs) – which includes injecting dermal filler into buttocks to elevate them and make them look greater.
BBC Information has spoken to 5 of his shoppers who wanted emergency hospital therapy after their procedures. We’ve got additionally been proven the testimonies of greater than 30 ladies who say they’ve been left with critical problems equivalent to sepsis and necrosis (tissue loss of life).
One girl informed us she felt on the time she would slightly “have died” than proceed with the ache she was in following the therapy.
A number of native authorities have banned Mr Sawyer from practising of their areas.
Our undercover filming captured Mr Sawyer handing out antibiotics with out a legitimate prescription – a felony offence. He’s not certified to prescribe and the capsules weren’t labelled for a particular affected person.
He additionally supplied to inject growing doses of native anaesthetic with out a prescriber current – once more unlawful – and didn’t ask for our reporter’s weight, thus placing her liable to an overdose.
Posing as a possible consumer and her pal, we had booked a 45-minute appointment with Mr Sawyer by means of his Instagram web page. We informed him we wished a 200ml (7fl oz) liquid BBL injection costing £1,200. We paid a £200 deposit.
Regardless of having marketed that each one liquid BBLs could be carried out below the steerage of an “ultrasound specialist physician”, none was current at his pop-up clinic. He was understanding of a small room in an east London workplace block – a non-clinical surroundings which might have elevated the chance of an infection.
Inside 5 minutes of being in his workplace, Mr Sawyer had begun to encourage our reporter to consider growing the quantity of filler. “You may be shocked about how a lot product you’ll be able to have and nonetheless look pure,” he urged.
By the tip of the appointment, Mr Sawyer had supplied to inject a litre of filler – 500ml (nearly a pint) per buttock – at a price of £2,000.
We didn’t undergo with it and later returned to place our allegations to him – however he refused to reply our questions and slammed the door on our reporter.
Reviewing our footage, plastic surgeon Dalvi Humzah, who sits on the Joint Council of Beauty Practitioners, mentioned Mr Sawyer’s actions had been “surprising”, “very harmful”, and placing sufferers at an enormous threat of an infection and doubtlessly deadly problems.
“Placing that quantity in, in a single sitting, is actually harmful,” mentioned Mr Humzah. “The buttocks are such a big space that in the event that they develop into contaminated it may overwhelm the physique and will finish in sepsis – and even loss of life.”
The filler used for liquid BBLs is commonly made up of hyaluronic acid, which is usually utilized in facial filling therapies. As a result of massive quantities of the acid are concerned in BBLs, and there’s a threat of significant unwanted effects equivalent to blood clots and sepsis, it’s thought to be one of the vital harmful beauty procedures.
Mr Sawyer boasted on digital camera that he did as much as seven procedures a day, six days every week. He can cost hundreds of kilos per appointment.
One of many ladies who mentioned she had skilled critical problems after receiving a liquid BBL from Mr Sawyer was Joanne. A mum of two from south Wales, who solely desires us to make use of her first identify, she travelled seven hours to Essex for the therapy.
Having had different beauty therapies earlier than and having been persuaded by Ricky Sawyer’s many adverts and movie star endorsements, a liquid BBL did not appear to be such an enormous step to her.
All she wished, she says, was a “peachy bum”.
However when Joanne arrived, she started to have second ideas.
She had solely been despatched a postcode and says she appeared to be strolling into an industrial property.
Ultimately, she discovered a small door right into a block of flats and says she was informed to attend in a “dingy little hallway” for about half an hour.
“I ought to have turned and ran,” she says, “however I had paid £600 deposit and travelled all this manner.”
She was taken right into a small room the place there “was solely a mattress, a tiny stool and a worktop”, and that’s the place she says she first met Ricky Sawyer.
After counting out the remainder of her money – £2,000 in whole – she says he informed her to face in entrance of him whereas he sat on the stool.
As he began to inject her with a litre (1.8 pints) of filler, the ache shortly turned insufferable.
“I felt dizzy, sick and like shaky. My legs did not even transfer correctly. And that was all inside a minute of him beginning,” she says. “I bear in mind trying spherical and he had white gloves on that had been stuffed with blood.”
By the tip of the process, Joanne was in agony: “I used to be in a lot ache, my backside was utterly disfigured.”
She says she may barely sit down. By the point she acquired residence the swelling had began and she or he may hardly stroll.
“I messaged Ricky a great deal of occasions to say how unhealthy I used to be feeling and the way fearful I used to be. He simply informed me to take my antibiotics.”
By this level, sepsis had begun to set in.
“My temperature saved on going up and I felt horrible,” says Joanne. “I needed to cellphone 999. I used to be dripping with sweat and screaming.”
In hospital, she was connected to intravenous antibiotics. At one level, a surgeon drew on her buttock to point the place they may want to chop, as a result of the an infection was spreading so shortly.
After messaging Ricky Sawyer saying she was in hospital with sepsis, she says he blocked her from his Instagram account.
Thankfully, Joanne didn’t want an operation.
One other of Mr Sawyer’s shoppers, Louise Moller, did want life-saving emergency surgical procedure.
4 days after receiving a liquid BBL at his Essex clinic in October 2023, the 28-year-old from Bolton was in hospital.
She rang her mom, Janet, from Salford Royal’s A&E division saying: “Mum, I believe I’ll die.”
Louise had contracted sepsis and was warned by surgeons that she may die at any minute. To cease the an infection from transferring by means of her physique, they lower lifeless tissue out of an space nearly masking her whole left buttock.
Janet TaylorJanet promised her daughter she would forestall this from occurring to anybody else and reported Ricky Sawyer to their native police station in Bolton.
“How can he keep it up understanding he may kill somebody?” she informed the BBC.
Nonetheless, Louise’s case highlights the issue in holding practitioners like him accountable.
Janet says she was informed by police in Bolton that the file would have to be handed to Essex Police, the place the incident occurred.
A prosecution might be troublesome nonetheless, she was warned, as a result of Louise had signed a consent type.
BBC Information has approached each Higher Manchester Police and Essex Police to get an replace on the case – each have mentioned it’s all the way down to the opposite to analyze.
From a authorized standpoint, there’s little to cease Mr Sawyer from practising.
Injecting dermal fillers is seen as non-surgical and is unregulated, which implies anybody can do it – and so they cannot be struck off and stopped.
In September 2024, Alice Webb is believed to have develop into the primary particular person to die after receiving a liquid BBL within the UK. Her process was not carried out by Ricky Sawyer.
Following her loss of life, Save Face – a bunch that campaigns for larger regulation to cowl non-surgical procedures – referred to as for a brand new legislation banning liquid BBLs from being carried out by anybody apart from surgeons registered with the Common Medical Council (GMC).
Save Face’s founder, Ashton Collins, says her organisation has obtained complaints from 39 ladies about Ricky Sawyer.
All the ladies, she says, have informed her they’ve been left needing pressing hospital therapy. Every of them, she says, had a BBL and suffered problems equivalent to sepsis, necrosis and disfigurement.
“We have inspired these ladies to report their experiences to the police,” she says. “Some have, and nothing has been completed.”
Up to now, the simplest motion has been taken by native authorities, three of which – Glasgow Metropolis Council, Epping Forest District Council and Brentwood Council – confirmed that they had issued prohibition notices below Well being and Security legislation to guard the general public from critical damage.
However “he simply strikes on to totally different areas of the nation and carries on”, says Ms Collins.
We put our proof to the Division of Well being and Social Care which mentioned it was “urgently choices for harder regulation”.
It mentioned our findings had been “surprising” and that these caught “dishing out treatment with out a licence ought to really feel the total drive of the legislation”.
We tried to place our allegations to Ricky Sawyer in particular person, by confronting him at his east London clinic.
As quickly as he noticed the digital camera he tried to slam the door on us, earlier than hiding behind it.
We requested him if he was breaking the legislation by handing out prescription-only drugs, and if he had something to say to the ladies who say they had been left with such critical accidents that they wanted emergency care.
“No,” he mentioned – and informed us to depart.
The risks of unregulated beauty surgical procedure must be taken much more severely, says Ashton Collins.
“The overall vibe that you simply choose up is that these are foolish ladies which have made foolish selections, pushed by means of self-importance, and it is their very own fault.”
It’s an angle that should change, she provides: “Individuals are on the market taking dangers with individuals’s lives, and so they can accomplish that with impunity.”
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