A celeb-backed liquid BBL injector has been banned from carrying out cosmetic procedures following a shocking BBC investigation and subsequent court ruling.
‘Beauty consultant’, Rick Sawyer, was found to be administering injections containing up to 1,000ml of dermal filler into clients’ buttocks, despite not having a single healthcare qualification.
The president of the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health, Mark Elliot, today slammed the shocking and dangerous practices Mr Sawyer was found to have committed.
‘The regulatory framework has failed to keep pace with the increase in the prevalence of cosmetic procedures in recent years, fuelled by social media,’ he said.
Sawyer was exposed in a chilling documentary that saw him working out of a rented office block in London, performing dangerous procedures, that left women hospitalised with deadly sepsis.
On Wednesday 28 May, a judge at the Manchester Civil Justice Centre granted an injunction against the self-proclaimed cosmetician, banning him from performing any procedures in England and Wales until 27 May 2028.
The injunction will also prohibit Sawyer from possessing related surgical equipment or any antibiotics typically used in such treatments, unless prescribed for his own personal use.
The court attached a power of arrest to the order, meaning Sawyer could be arrested without a warrant if he is found to be in breach of these terms.
Raw footage shows ‘beauty consultant’ Ricky Sawyer — whose celebrity clients include Katie Price — offering to inject hundreds of milliliters of filler into clients’ buttocks, despite not having a single healthcare qualification, according to the BBC
Cameras also capture Mr Sawyer illegally handing out antibiotics. All of the hard-hitting clips were secretly captured by an undercover reporter who had booked a consultation with the beautician through his Instagram page
He has been given 21 days to challenge the injunction.
‘We believe that the most high-risk cosmetic procedures, such as the BBL, should be designated as surgical and undertaken only by appropriately trained, regulated and experienced GMC-registered doctors,’ Mr Elliot continued.
The court, together with Trafford Council, heard evidence from the original BBC investigation, which featured testimonies from nearly 40 women, alongside graphic pictures submitted by one of Mr Sawyer’s clients.
James Parry, the lawyer who raised the case, said the injuries suffered were akin to that of a ‘serious knife crime’.
One woman, who suffered sepsis—a life-threatening reaction to an infection—after undergoing a procedure by Sawyer, shared her story.
Ashely, 27, who attended one of Sawyer’s pop-up clinics in London, said: ‘He butchered me, there is no other word for it’.
Ashely said that when she left the clinic, covered in blood, she was barely able to walk.
Three days later she was rushed to hospital with sepsis, where she could have died without treatment.
Last year Monique Sofroniou (pictured), 30, called for a ban on ‘liquid BBLs’ after a botched procedure left her buttocks with leaking black holes and in pain ‘worse than childbirth’
Monique was rushed to hospital where doctors attempted to remedy the situation (pictured: the mother-of-one after surgery in hospital to repair damage caused by the filler)
This happens when your immune system overreacts to an infection and starts to attack your body’s own tissues and organs. Without treatment, this can quickly develop into septic shock, causing the organs to shut down completely.
The liquid BBL procedure is notoriously risky, especially when performed by non-medics.
This is because when injected into or near a blood vessel, filler can block blood flow leading to tissue death. Inadequately sterilising equipment can too, trigger dangerous infections.
Reacting to Wednesday’s court proceedings, Ashley said: ‘I am relieved, it makes me feel that we’re being taken seriously.’
The environmental health watchdog is now urging the government to enforce a licensing scheme for non-surgical cosmetic procedures across England with the hope that it will prevent people without the proper certifications from preforming these dangerous procedures.
Mr Elliot said: ‘This scheme will help to ensure that people who undergo non-surgical cosmetic procedures receive treatment from practitioners who are properly trained and qualified, have the necessary insurance cover and operate from premises that are safe and hygienic.’
Another of Mr Sawyer’s clients required life-saving emergency surgery that saw medics cut dead tissue from almost the entire left buttock, the BBC probe found.
Louise Moller, from Bolton, was hospitalised four days after receiving a liquid BBL at his Essex clinic in October 2023 and was told she had contracted sepsis.
Nearly 40 women came forward to testify against Mr Sawyer, all of whom needed hospital treatment
The now 28-year-old rang her mother, Janet, from Salford Royal’s A&E department and said: ‘Mum, I think I’m going to die.’
The BBC documentary saw one woman known only as Joanne, travel seven hours from south Wales to Essex for the liquid BBL treatment.
The mum-of-two said she had undergone other cosmetic treatments previously and had been persuaded to get a ‘peachy bum’ by Mr Sawyer’s adverts and celebrity endorsements.
However, when she arrived she claimed his clinic was in a block of flats in an industrial estate and she waited in a ‘dingy little hallway’ for roughly half an hour.
‘I should have turned and ran but I had paid £600 deposit and travelled all this way,’ she said.
After parting with the additional £1,400 for the treatment, she then stood in front of him while he sat on a stool and injected her with a litre of filler.
‘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 said.
‘I remember looking round and he had white gloves on that were full of blood.’
By the time she returned to South Wales hours later, the swelling had begun and she could hardly walk, she claimed.
‘I messaged Ricky loads of times to say how bad I was feeling and how worried I was. He just told me to take my antibiotics,’ she added.
‘My temperature kept on going up and I felt terrible. I had to phone 999. I was dripping with sweat and screaming.’
In hospital, she was diagnosed with sepsis and attached to intravenous antibiotics. Medics fortunately did not need to operate.
Experts have long warned of ‘non-surgical’ aesthetic treatments carried out by practitioners will little experience and repeatedly called for tighter controls over the cosmetic industry.
While the risks of a traditional Brazilian Butt Lift (BBL) are well known — surgery to transfer fat from other areas to the buttocks — a non-surgical methods that aim to create the same result are less understood.
Unlike a traditional BBL which sees fat transferred from other areas of the body, a liquid BBL involves hyaluronic acid fillers.
Dermal filler — the same material used to fill lips — is injected in large quantities into the buttock.
Non-surgical BBLs are not illegal in the UK.
However, several local authorities including Wolverhampton, Essex and Glasgow have banned certain companies from carrying out liquid BBLs in their area.
And since the BBC documentary aired Trafford, Salford and Manchester councils have banned Sawyer from practicing in their areas.
Trafford Council will continue to monitor compliance with the injunction and encourages anyone with information about unlawful cosmetic procedures to contact them.
