Women given faulty breast implants have spoken of their distress after being confronted by bailiffs serving papers, telling them they may have to pay back compensation.
Bailiffs have been turning up at the homes of women affected by the Poly Implant Prothèse (PIP) breast implant scandal to inform them that the compensation award is being challenged.
In 2017, TÜV Rheinland, the German cosmetic-surgery certification agency, was ordered to make an interim payment of €3,000 (£2,647) each to 20,000 victims from Europe for medical negligence.
But the company has lodged an appeal with the French court of appeal, creating further anxiety for the women affected.
Amanda Carter, from Kettering, Northamptonshire, who helps run the Official PIP Implant Campaign support group on Facebook, said: “It’s very distressing, some people have had bailiffs at the door. Some people are receiving letters from the UK court saying they need to collect papers and if they don’t, bailiffs will be sent to their house. People fear they may have a CCJ [county court judgment] registered against them or have bailiffs come and take their possessions.
“We have some very vulnerable ladies: some have been suicidal, some have severe health issues, physical and mental.”
Carter said that when the scandal broke she thought her implants would be OK because the procedure was done by “a top Harley Street surgeon”. However, she became “extremely ill” as a result of silicone leaking into her body tissue.
Carter said that she, like others affected, had a bailiff letter sent to her previous residence, causing embarrassment.
She said 50 women who had inexplicably not received the €3,000 payment had nevertheless still been contacted. “They’re receiving court papers saying that they might potentially have to repay this money when they’ve never even received it,” she said.
Stephanie Wendy Lee, who lives in Hemel Hempstead, Hertfordshire, said after legal costs were removed, she only received £2,150 in compensation – “a pittance”, which largely went into investigating ailments such as chest pains and bleeding caused by the implants.
“I have received one load of letters of 50 to 60 pages long,” she said. “Some women have received these three times, hand-delivered by bailiffs and told that if they don’t pay the money back we’ll come and take your things. It’s been really, really awful. Nobody deserves this.”
She believes the government should do more to help the affected and would have done so if it were not for the perception that “it’s just vain women”.
Cedric Joachimsmann, who is working with the women’s lawyer Olivier Aumaitre, said some of them had had photographs taken by bailiffs. “They are trying to scare patients,” he said. “They’re not obliged to send these notifications.”
Cécile Derycke, a lawyer at Hogan Lovells Paris, which is representing TÜV Rheinland, said the firm was complying with French law, which requires submissions to be served on defendants if a lawyer has not registered with the court, which she said was the case in this instance.
“TÜV Rheinland took many steps to avoid sending documentation to the claimants and the associated difficulties and costs for all parties involved,” said Derycke. “The French lawyers for the claimants were duly informed that this would happen.” Joachimsmann claimed there was no such obligation.
PIP’s implants were found to have been made with substandard and non-authorised material – silicone used in mattresses – not fit for humans, and to have double the rupture rate of other implants.
