EXCLUSIVE: Victims of dangerous implants get £500million

THOUSANDS of British women who had potentially unsafe breast implants fitted could be in line for payouts totalling up to half a billion pounds.

Elizabeth WilliamsGARY ROBERTS

Elizabeth Williams was left depressed by the traumatic ordeal

There are believed to be more than 50,000 women in the UK who were fitted with PIP implants, before the product was found to contain a high level of industrial silicone.

The scandal came to light after high numbers of the implants ruptured.

Now a firm of British lawyers is surging women to come forward before a March 2015 deadline to seek compensation for the trauma and financial costs of having their implants removed. 

Solicitor Steven Hulme, from the Stanton Fisher Group, said:

“Anyone living in the UK should consider making a claim now.

“Women who have had PIP implants simply need to prove they had the surgery. 

There is no requirement for the implants to have ruptured or still be in place.

Women who have had PIP implants simply need to prove they had the surgery

Steven Hulme, solicitor

“The victims of the PIP breast implant scandal have been cruelly and criminally treated and we are determined to get justice and financial compensation for them.”

PIP implants were sold widely across the world from the mid-1990s.

There was uproar when it emerged in 2010 that the French firm Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) had been manufacturing them using industrial-grade silicone intended for mattresses. 

A founder of the company was last year jailed for four years for fraud by a French court.

However, a separate court ruling, pending an appeal, could open the way for women to seek compensation from a safety company that certified the implants.

Mr Hulme said: “This has opened the door for the thousands of women in the UK and Ireland who had PIP implants to take action in the French courts.

“We are pursuing an advance payment of up to £2,500 for each of our clients, prior to their final compensation award being decided by the court, which could be up to £10,000.”

One of the British woman who suffered depression and anxiety over the scandal is sandwich shop owner Elizabeth Williams, 34, from Manchester. She had PIP implants fitted in 2008.

She said: “When I heard about the PIP implants I panicked. I borrowed some money from my family to pay the £2,500 cost of having them removed and new implants put in.

“But the whole thing left me very depressed. The compensation payouts won’t make up for all the worry.

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