BBC Information Investigations
A self-styled “magnificence marketing consultant”, whose movie star shopper record contains Katie Worth, is providing doubtlessly harmful beauty procedures to purchasers and handing over remedy illegally – a BBC investigation has found.
Ricky Sawyer specialises in liquid Brazilian butt-lifts (BBLs) – which entails injecting dermal filler into buttocks to elevate them and make them look greater.
BBC Information has spoken to 5 of his purchasers who wanted emergency hospital remedy after their procedures. We’ve additionally been proven the testimonies of greater than 30 girls who say they’ve been left with severe issues equivalent to sepsis and necrosis (tissue demise).
One lady informed us she felt on the time she would reasonably “have died” than proceed with the ache she was in following the remedy.
A number of native authorities have banned Mr Sawyer from practising of their areas.
Our undercover filming captured Mr Sawyer handing out antibiotics with no legitimate prescription – a legal offence. He’s not certified to prescribe and the capsules weren’t labelled for a particular affected person.
He additionally provided to inject growing doses of native anaesthetic with no prescriber current – once more unlawful – and didn’t ask for our reporter’s weight, thus placing her prone to an overdose.
Posing as a possible shopper and her buddy, we had booked a 45-minute appointment with Mr Sawyer by way of his Instagram web page. We informed him we needed 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 beneath the steering of an “ultrasound specialist physician”, none was current at his pop-up clinic. He was figuring out of a small room in an east London workplace block – a non-clinical surroundings which might have elevated the danger 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 could be shocked about how a lot product you’ll be able to have and nonetheless look pure,” he advised.
By the top of the appointment, Mr Sawyer had provided to inject a litre of filler – 500ml (virtually a pint) per buttock – at a value 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 Committee of Beauty Practitioners, mentioned Mr Sawyer’s actions have been “surprising”, “very harmful”, and placing sufferers at an enormous danger of an infection and doubtlessly deadly issues.
“Placing that quantity in, in a single sitting, is admittedly harmful,” mentioned Mr Humzah. “The buttocks are such a big space that in the event that they turn out to be contaminated it may well overwhelm the physique and will finish in sepsis – and even demise.”
The filler used for liquid BBLs is commonly made up of hyaluronic acid, which is often utilized in facial filling remedies. As a result of massive quantities of the acid are concerned in BBLs, and there’s a danger of significant unintended effects equivalent to blood clots and sepsis, it’s considered one of the crucial harmful beauty procedures.
Mr Sawyer boasted on digicam 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 girls who mentioned she had skilled severe issues after receiving a liquid BBL from Mr Sawyer was Joanne. A mum of two from south Wales, who solely needs us to make use of her first identify, she travelled seven hours to Essex for the remedy.
Having had different beauty remedies earlier than and having been persuaded by Ricky Sawyer’s many adverts and movie star endorsements, a liquid BBL did not seem to be such a giant step to her.
All she needed, 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.
In the long run, 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 fashion.”
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 rapidly 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 wanting spherical and he had white gloves on that have been filled with blood.”
By the top of the process, Joanne was in agony: “I used to be in a lot ache, my backside was fully disfigured.”
She says she may barely sit down. By the point she acquired house the swelling had began and he or she may hardly stroll.
“I messaged Ricky a great deal of instances to say how unhealthy I used to be feeling and the way apprehensive I used to be. He simply informed me to take my antibiotics.”
By this level, sepsis had begun to set in.
“My temperature stored on going up and I felt horrible,” says Joanne. “I needed to telephone 999. I used to be dripping with sweat and screaming.”
In hospital, she was hooked up 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 rapidly.
After messaging Ricky Sawyer saying she was in hospital with sepsis, she says he blocked her from his Instagram account.
Luckily, Joanne didn’t want an operation.
One other of Mr Sawyer’s purchasers, 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 feel 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 shifting by way of her physique, they minimize useless tissue out of an space virtually protecting her total left buttock.
Janet 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 realizing 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 must be handed to Essex Police, the place the incident occurred.
A prosecution could possibly be troublesome nonetheless, she was warned, as a result of Louise had signed a consent kind.
BBC Information has approached each Better Manchester Police and Essex Police to get an replace on the case – each have mentioned it’s right down to the opposite to research.
From a authorized standpoint, there may be 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 turn out to be 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 demise, Save Face – a bunch that campaigns for higher regulation to cowl non-surgical procedures – known as for a brand new regulation banning liquid BBLs from being carried out by anybody apart from surgeons registered with the Basic Medical Council (GMC).
Save Face’s founder, Ashton Collins, says her organisation has obtained complaints from 39 girls about Ricky Sawyer.
All the ladies, she says, have informed her they’ve been left needing pressing hospital remedy. Every of them, she says, had a BBL and suffered issues equivalent to sepsis, necrosis and disfigurement.
“We have inspired these girls to report their experiences to the police,” she says. “Some have, and nothing has been executed.”
To this point, 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 beneath Well being and Security regulation to guard the general public from severe damage.
However “he simply strikes on to completely 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 have been “surprising” and that these caught “dishing out remedy with no licence ought to really feel the total power of the regulation”.
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 digicam he tried to slam the door on us, earlier than hiding behind it.
We requested him if he was breaking the regulation by handing out prescription-only drugs, and if he had something to say to the ladies who say they have been left with such severe accidents that they wanted emergency care.
“No,” he mentioned – and informed us to go away.
The hazards of unregulated beauty surgical procedure ought to be taken much more critically, says Ashton Collins.
“The overall vibe that you simply decide up is that these are foolish girls which have made foolish decisions, pushed by way 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 folks’s lives, and so they can achieve this with impunity.”
