Moment cowboy 'beauty consultant' cowers behind door after dodgy BBL practice is exposed
Moment cowboy 'beauty consultant' cowers behind door after dodgy BBL practice is exposed
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A self-styled “beauty consultant” who offers up medication illegally to Brazilian butt lift clients was caught in an undercover sting by the BBC. Ricky Sawyer, whose client list includes Katie Price, has been banned by several local authorities for practising in their areas. BBC News spoke to five of his clients who needed emergency hospital treatment after their procedures and has also been shown the testimonies of over 30 women who say they have been left with serious complications such as sepsis and necrosis.
One woman said she felt at the time she would rather “have died” than continue with the pain she was in, following the treatment. Several local authorities have banned Mr Sawyer from practising in their areas. The BBC’s undercover filming captured Mr Sawyer handing out antibiotics despite not being qualified to do so, which is a criminal offence. He also offered to inject increasing doses of local anaesthetic without a prescriber present - which is illegal - and did not ask for the reporter’s weight, thus putting her at risk of an overdose.
Posing as a potential client and her friend, the BBC reporters had booked a 45-minute consultation with Mr Sawyer through his Instagram page. They told him they wanted a 200ml (7fl oz) liquid BBL injection costing £1,200. They paid a £200 deposit. Despite having advertised that all liquid BBLs would be carried out under the guidance of an “ultrasound specialist doctor”, none was present at his pop-up clinic.
He was working out of a small room in an east London office block – a non-clinical environment which would have increased the risk of infection. Within five minutes of being in his office, Mr Sawyer had begun to encourage the reporter to think about increasing the amount of filler. “You might be surprised about how much product you can have and still look natural,” he suggested. By the end of the appointment, Mr Sawyer had offered to inject a litre of filler – 500ml (almost a pint) per buttock – for a cost of £2,000.
The BBC reporter did not go through with the procedure and later attempted to put the allegations to Ricky Sawyer in person, by confronting him at his clinic. As soon as he saw the camera he tried to slam the door on the reporter, before cowering behind it. BBC News asked him if he was breaking the law by handing out prescription-only medicine, and if he had anything to say to the women who say they were left with such serious injuries that they needed emergency care. “No,” he said - and told the reporter to leave.
Reviewing the BBC’s undercover footage, plastic surgeon Dalvi Humzah, who sits on the Joint Committee of Cosmetic Practitioners, said Mr Sawyer’s actions were “shocking”, “very dangerous”, and putting patients at a huge risk of infection and potentially fatal complications. “Putting that volume in, in one sitting, is really dangerous,” said Mr Humzah. “The buttocks are such a large area that if they become infected it can overwhelm the body and could end in sepsis – or even death.”.
The filler used for liquid BBLs is often made up of hyaluronic acid, which is commonly used in facial filling treatments. Because large amounts of the acid are involved in BBLs, and there is a risk of serious side effects such as blood clots and sepsis, it is regarded as one of the most dangerous cosmetic procedures. Mr Sawyer boasted on camera that he did up to seven procedures a day, six days a week. He can charge thousands of pounds per appointment.
One of the women the BBC spoke to, who said they had experienced serious complications after receiving a liquid BBL from Mr Sawyer, was Joanne, who only wants to use her first name. She is a mum of two from south Wales, who travelled seven hours to Essex for the treatment. Having had other cosmetic treatments before and having been persuaded by Ricky Sawyer’s many adverts and celebrity endorsements, a liquid BBL didn’t seem like such a big step to her. All she wanted, she says, was a “peachy bum”.
But when Joanne arrived, she began to have second thoughts. She had only been sent a postcode and says she seemed to be walking into an industrial estate. In the end, she found a small door into a block of flats and says she was told to wait in a “dingy little hallway” for about half an hour. “I should have turned and ran,” she says, “but I had paid £600 deposit and travelled all this way.”.
She was taken into a small room where there “was only a bed, a tiny stool and a worktop”, and that is where she says she first met Ricky Sawyer. After counting out the rest of her cash - £2,000 in total - she says he told her to stand in front of him while he sat on the stool. As he started to inject her with a litre (1.7pt) of filler, the pain quickly became unbearable. “I felt dizzy, sick and like shaky. My legs didn’t even move properly. And that was all within a minute of him starting,” she says. “I remember looking round and he had white gloves on that were full of blood.” By the end of the procedure, Joanne was in agony: “I was in so much pain, my bottom was completely disfigured.”.