French PIP breast implant boss arrested

Posted 26/01/2012

Poly Implant Prothese (PIP) founder Jean-Claude Mas, 72, has been arrested in Southern France to assist police with their enquiries into the scandal.Apparently Mr Mas has been under investigation since last year after having admitted to police that PIP ordered employees to hide the unauthorised silicone when they visited its factory. Mr Mas has insisted that the implants posed no threat to health and attacked the French authorities for offering to pay for their removal because it put women through a “surgery risk”. He has gone on record to say that he had “nothing” to say to women facing surgery for their removal and that victims had only filed complaints “to make money”.

Sharon Allison, a medical injury lawyer at Ashtons Legal who acts for clients with PIP breast implants says: “Mr Mas’s attitude towards this fiasco is frankly disgusting. Thousands of women are facing immense uncertainty and anxiety and for some, they simply don’t have the financial capital to have their implants replaced, giving them considerable issues over self confidence and self image. At the very least, some public apology from Mr Mas for the distress caused would have been the least he could have done”.