Tuesday 10 December 2013

PIP breast implant founder sentenced to four years - Telegraph

PIP breast implant founder sentenced to four years - Telegraph
Jean-Claude Mas, the founder of PIP, the French firm at the centre of a global scandal over defective breast implants, was yesterday found guilty of fraud and sentenced to four years in prison.
Four other former executives were also convicted and given lesser sentences — from 18 months to three years — after one of the biggest trials ever seen in France.
Cheers erupted in the courtroom in Marseille, southern France this morning from around 50 women present out of at total of 7,113 civil plaintiffs, with one slamming Mr Mas as being “disdainful, arrogant and odious” throughout the proceedings.
The 74-year-old, who says he is insolvent, was also ordered to compensate more than 4,000 plaintiffs up to 13,000 euros (£11,000) each for the anxiety he had caused them and, in some cases, the physical trauma of having the implants removed.
Jan Spivey, one of around 150 British plaintiffs from an estimated 47,000 Britons with PIP implants, was present in Marseille for the verdict.
She said: “I’m delighted that the victims have finally received recognition for very a serious crime against women.”
“During the trial Mr Mas described a number of women using his implants as 'fragile’. That, I believe is possibly true, as these are women with children, with families, some are recovering from cancer. It only makes his crime all the more appalling,” she told The Telegraph.
However, she and other plaintiffs were unhappy that he was allowed to walk free pending an appeal.
Doubts about breast implants sold by Poly Implant Prothese, or PIP, first emerged in 2010 after doctors noticed abnormally high rupture rates.
They were subsequently found to contain industrial-grade silicone gel unfit for human use, sparking an international scandal believed to have affected more than 300,000 women in 65 countries.
PIP hid evidence of the non-medical silicone during visits by European inspectors who approved the implants. Use of the illegal silicone saved the company 1 million euros a year as it cost five euros a litre — seven times cheaper than standard gel.


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