A fraudster who faked being a plastic surgeon and left women maimed has been struck off the medical register.

Leslie Blackstock was convicted in July 2019 of criminal offences for carrying out breast augmentation surgeries in an unlicensed health clinic.

On Wednesday a tribunal ruled that Blackstock was “guilty of professional misconduct and that his registration should be cancelled” in relation to complaints of misconduct.

The Health Care Complaints Commission (HCCC) told the tribunal that with 11 patients, Blackstock carried out breaches of several rules and regulations whilst performing surgery in Sydney, Australia.

They said that among other violations he inappropriately sat sedated patients up during surgery to get consent for breast implants; invited friends and relatives to come into the operating room; and in one instance, conducted a labiaplasty at the same time as breast augmentation without a general anaesthetic and in an unlicensed facility.

A report by one expert said that the postoperative care Blackstock provided was “significantly below standard”, with some patients discharged after just 20 minutes following their surgery.

Other women were not even examined before going under the knife, the Guardian reports, with the surgeon relying in one case on photos submitted and her self-measurements.

Blackstock had no plastic surgery qualifications but falsely described himself as one, carrying out breast augmentation, the tribunal was told.

In Australia, a specialist plastic surgeon only performs surgeries in accredited hospitals and facilities and is regularly audited by health departments.

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In a letter from his lawyers to the HCCC, the fake surgeon claimed he could carry out surgery because his operations were reconstructive rather than cosmetic.

The NSW district court previously heard Blackstock performed breast implant surgery on 'Patient J' without an anaesthetist in his house, where surgical sheets were draped over old armchairs.

The patient was left suffering from severe complications including an infection requiring further surgeries.

Patient J told the tribunal: “I cannot stand for my breasts to be touched or looked at.

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“My right breast is very painful and I am waiting for it to split. My body is in a terrible state and the effect of the surgeries is profound. I would not wish this on my worst enemy.”

The tribunal agreed with the submission of counsel for the HCCC “that the impact the surgery had on the women cannot be overstated”.

“We find the practitioner had no regard for legislative requirements and flagrantly, when he was clearly on notice of those requirements, operated in unlicensed premises,” the tribunal decision said.

“We find that the practitioner’s practice of sitting patients up during surgery exposed them to unacceptable risks, including infection. The women could not have given any rational consent to the inserted implants being appropriate in circumstances where they were heavily sedated.”

The tribunal cancelled Blackstock’s medical registration, and imposed a period of seven years before he can again apply for registration.

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