Konstanz, Germany. Oct 26 (dpa/GNA) – A German court has sentenced a 28-year-old man who posed as a doctor and treated customers hundreds of times at a beauty clinic to three years and nine months in prison.
The Konstanz Regional Court ruled on Monday, that it found it proven that he had obtained a job at the Konstanz beauty clinic, using forged certificates and a fake medical licence.
He was convicted of forgery of documents, misuse of professional titles, dangerous bodily harm and fraud. The ruling is not yet final.
Between early March and mid-April, the trained paramedic injected customers 466 times with Botox and hyaluronic acid, according to the court’s findings.
Two of the treated patients were only 17 years old, according to the indictment. However, an expert was unable to prove that he had committed any treatment errors.
The man had admitted the charges at the start of the trial about a week earlier. He said he had bought his certificates and the medical licence document from a Chinese online provider. He said he had longed for recognition and had pretended to his circle of contacts that he had studied medicine.
Prosecutors had demanded four years and six months in prison. The defence argued for no more than two and a half years.
In his closing statement, the defendant apologized to those affected: “I am endlessly sorry.” He said the last six months had been the hardest of his life.
The clinic belongs to a chain run by two well-known doctors and influencers, known as Dr Rick and Dr Nick.
Before the trial began, Henrik Heüveldop, or Dr Rick, and Dominik Bettray, or Dr Nick, said in a video on Instagram and TikTok, that they had been deceived by the man, just like their patients.
The defendant has been in pre-trial detention since April. He had previously been convicted of a similar fraud in the northern city of Braunschweig and fined.
GNA