Beautician is fined €8k for giving illegal Botox jabs to clients
Judge dismisses nurse’s appeal, saying she provided treatments without a prescription
A BEAUTICIAN has been fined €8,000 on appeal for unlawfully giving Botox treatments to clients at her salon.
Anne Rossi, who runs the Anne Rossi Skin and Beauty Salon at Vernon Avenue, Clontarf, Dublin 3, was prosecuted by the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) for offences under the Irish Medicines Board Act.
She pleaded not guilty to all the charges against her.
The Dublin District Court had, in February last year, imposed a total of €10,000 in fines, with eight months to pay, but Ms Rossi appealed against her convictions.
In her judgment, published last week by the Courts Service, Judge Jennifer O’Brien of the Dublin Circuit Criminal Court, said she had engaged in a fresh hearing of the case in late January this year.
Judge O’Brien said it was alleged that, on various dates between November 2014 and February 2015, Ms Rossi, a State-registered nurse who works as a beautician, had provided Botox treatment as part of her service without having the necessary prescriptions from doctors.
Two witnesses testified about treatments they received, and evidence was given claiming Ms Rossi’s registration did not authorise her to administer Botox.
Authorised officers of the HPRA had seized a quantity of Dysport during a search of her clinic.
Dysport, the judge said, contains botulinum toxin 3 type A, commonly known as Botox, and is a prescription-only drug, used for cosmetic purposes and to reduce the appearance of wrinkles. Dr Mukesh Lalloo, a skin surgeon specialist who works out of a HSE clinic in Dublin, told the court he had concerns about a patient whom he treated after she attended Ms Rossi’s clinic in Clontarf. He made a report to the HPRA about it.
The judge said he gave evidence that Botox can be dangerous, and must be administered by a medical doctor.
‘He gave evidence that if the product is injected incorrectly, it can cause a complete abnormal paralysis within the face,’ she said.
‘He also said that there have been reports of fatalities.
‘He gave evidence that he administers Botox every day, with the consent of the patient, having taken a full medical history.
‘He said there were circumstances in which you would not proceed to administer the product, depending on the particular patient’s requirements.’
In a statement to the HPRA, Ms Rossi confirmed she had been administering Botox to patients, and had sourced Dysport from the UK.
She said she had been administering the product for approximately a year while she was ‘in between doctors’ and unable to source a doctor.
She admitted she had been ‘on a sticky wicket’.
Ms Rossi said she would show her clients the areas where they needed Botox, and she would then inject them, charging between €250 and €300 per session.
She said that she was trained in administering Botox and that she had a certificate to prove that. She said she was doing her best to contact doctors knowing they should have been on the premises administering for her, the judge said.
Two women who had attended her clinic for Botox told the court that they had no complaints about their treatment.
Ms Rossi’s barrister told the court the drug was an authorised product which could be sold on the market.
Seized a quantity of Dysport
‘Without presence of a medical doctor’
They also argued no medical doctor had been called to give evidence about her allegedly forged prescriptions.
Ms Rossi’s husband, Kieran Rossi, said he did not believe his wife had made the admissions contained in the voluntary statement.
He said she did not use the phrase ‘sticky wicket’, and that he had never seen the Botox at the clinic.
Judge O’Brien concluded: ‘Having heard the evidence in this matter, the court is satisfied beyond all reasonable doubt that the appellant [Ms Rossi] knowingly supplied a prescription-only product that is Dysport and that she placed this product on the market without a necessary prescription.
‘The appellant also administered the product to her clients without the presence of a medical doctor.’
She dismissed Ms Rossi’s appeal, and ordered that she pay a total of €8,000 in fines, within six months, plus just over €5,000 in costs.