Bailiffs sent to PIP implant victims

WOMEN who won compensation over dangerous breast implants have been visited by bailiffs on behalf of the company responsible in a bid to get the money back.

Victims of the global PIP implant scandal have said the visits have left them suffering from anxiety and panic attacks.

TUV Rheinland, the German organisation that had certified the implants as safe, was found liable for the scandal in 2017 and ordered to make payouts by a French court. The implants were made by Poly Implant Prothese (PIP), a French firm, and in 2010 it emerged they had been made with substandard industrial-grade silicone.

Now it has emerged that TUV Rheinland has begun an appeal and 13,000 victims awarded compensation have been served legal papers.

Lawyers for the firm in France have said they are required to serve the documents via bailiffs because the victims had not registered an appointed counsel with the court. Stephanie Wendy Lee from Kidderminster, told the BBC: “It’s like having a court summons. You think, is a bailiff suddenly going to turn up at the house and take stuff away? Am I going to prison for money that I’ve been given through a court?”

Jean-claude Mas, the founder of PIP, was jailed for four years for fraud in 2013. He died last month aged 79.

TUV Rheinland, which was one of a number of bodies that certified the implants as safe, maintains it was not responsible for what the implants were made of.

Cécile Derycke, a lawyer representing TUV Rheinland, said: “In French law, people who are defendants before the court of appeal must either register counsel with the court, or they must receive the other party’s submissions through a bailiff.”

Amanda Carter, who helps run the Official PIP Implant Campaign group on Facebook, said: “A lot of women are concerned that a bailiff at their door means that they can come in and take their possessions.”