Two more victims of 'top plastic surgeon'

DUBAI // A man who impersonated the respected Hollywood plastic surgeon Dr Stephen Hopping has been sentenced to a further five months in jail for two botched surgeries. The 40-year-old American, S M, was convicted last week of life endangerment and causing accidental injury, adding the five-month jail term to his previous two-month conviction.

S M, who is wanted by the FBI on additional charges, was sentenced to three months in prison for causing accidental injury to a 31-year-old Romanian woman who consulted him in August last year. The patient visited S M in his Al Barsha villa to remove lip fillers that had been implanted by another surgeon four years earlier. The woman was left with permanent scarring. He was also sentenced to two months in jail on a charge of life endangerment for injecting botox into the forehead of a 35-year-old Jordanian woman, identified as A A.

On Sunday, SM was back in court on charges of life endangerment, illegally practising medicine and impersonating another person after he allegedly operated on a 27-year-old Palestinian woman identified as H S. SM pleaded guilty to illegally practising medicine and illegally impersonating Dr Hopping, but denied life endangerment. In his defence, the 40-year-old man told presiding Judge Jamal al Jubaili, of the Dubai Court of Misdemeanours, he has practised medicine in the United States for 14 years and had continued to do so in Dubai for at least 12 months.

He claimed he was forced to conduct his illegal practice to support his family. The Palestinian woman told prosecutors she was referred to S M by one of her friends, who had previously been treated by him. HS had a facelift and received two botox injections from SM at the cost of Dh1,000. After the procedure, HS suffered facial inflammation in the area where the botox was administered. According to prosecution records, she experienced acute psychological hysteria as a result.

H S told prosecutors that when she contacted S M for medication he asked her to calm down and said this was normal. The court will meet next week on August 8 to issue its verdict. In reaction to news of the ongoing cases, SM's Romanian patient, who works in the fashion industry, told The National that she was also hoping to seek compensation from S M to pay for the next round of reconstructive treatment.

"It was horrible, he kept cutting," she said. "Now I am hoping to get another corrective surgery with the real Dr Hopping after Ramadan." S M was arrested last February after an investigation by the Dubai Health Authority and Dubai Police revealed that he was performing surgeries on his kitchen table. He arrived in the country in 2007 after his US medical licence was revoked in 2004. He is wanted by the FBI and Interpol on charges including drug possession and trafficking, crimes against life and health, as well as giving false statements to the US government.

The charges related to a 2003 lawsuit brought by the Oregon attorney general, Hardy Myers, that claimed SM violated consumer protection laws and illegally imported human growth hormone from China. He was also accused of claiming that a gel he sold on the internet contained the same active ingredient as the anti-impotence drug Viagra. S M's previous two-month conviction is being appealed by Dr Hopping and the Public Prosecutor, who are asking for a harsher sentence. In the first hearing in July, S M failed to appear in court and the case was adjourned to August 23.