A former tattooist who left a woman “looking like a gargoyle” after giving her botched face fillers had been posing as a doctor at his aesthetics clinic, a BBC investigation has revealed. It comes as a leading practitioner warns of more “death and disfigurement” as plans to regulate the industry continue to be delayed.

Andrea covers her face when she leaves the house, because she worries people will laugh at her, two years after having cosmetic procedures.

“I see a gargoyle… something horrible, disgusting,” she tells the BBC.

“I live a nightmare every single day.”

The 60-year-old initially visited Reshape U cosmetics clinic in Hull in December 2021 for breast fillers.

She says she did “all the right things” to check the clinic’s reputation and felt further reassured reading on its website that it had “won Best Aesthetics Clinic in Yorkshire in 2022 at the England Business Awards”.

She was seen at the clinic by Sean Scott. Posts on social media pages for Reshape U and Faces by Sean at the time referred to him as Dr Sean Scott, Clinical Director. Videos posted by the same accounts in January and April 2023 show a plaque on his door in the clinic saying Dr Sean Scott, hPhd, Clinical Director.

However, the BBC has discovered Mr Scott is not medically trained. He said he “naively and regretfully” bought an honorary doctorate in business consultancy online and displayed the certificate in his clinic.

He says he did not portray himself as a medical doctor and claimed he informed clients who asked that he was not medically qualified. He says he stopped using the fake title on advice from Hull City Council (HCC) in 2024, with the authority telling him it was “misleading”.

Andrea claims Mr Scott gave her antibiotics to take after her first breast filler procedure in December 2021. She says he gave her antibiotics again when she returned the following month for a second breast filler procedure.

“I trusted in everything that he said to me… because he knew what he was on about – he was the doctor,” Andrea admits.

The General Medical Council, which regulates doctors, says only “medical professionals” can prescribe antibiotics and Botox and they should only do so if they have “adequate knowledge” of the patient.

Mr Scott has told the BBC he did not prescribe the antibiotics or Botox, and instead used a “registered prescriber with an authorised pharmacy” to obtain the medicine online.

Two months after receiving breast fillers, Andrea says Mr Scott encouraged her to have facial fillers.

Dermal fillers are injections of hyaluronic acid, which are used to fill wrinkles and add volume to tissue.

Andrea claims Mr Scott told her he thought her cheeks were “uneven” and he could help “harmonise” her face.

Andrea had filler in her cheeks, chin and jaw but says her face started swelling and dark marks appeared. From there, she says the supposedly “simple procedure” turned into a catalogue of botched treatments.

Andrea claims Mr Scott told her the swellings were caused by an insect bite and says she was encouraged to have further treatments.

Mr Scott strongly denies the allegations, adding: “Never once did we perform any treatments while the client was showing any signs of swelling, bruising or any other side effect.”

He said the only complaints Andrea initially made were that she “wasn’t quite happy” with the treatments, and that was the reason she had “so many” follow-up appointments.

Mr Scott also claimed Andrea had visited other clinics for treatment during this period, including one which damaged her skin, and that his clinic treated this damage. Andrea says she only had one dermal filler treatment elsewhere, which she was happy with, three years before visiting Mr Scott.

Mr Scott was a tattooist for 33 years before opening Reshape U in 2019. He also runs an aesthetics training business, the Yorkshire Aesthetics Training Academy.

Over the course of 10 months, Andrea had more than 30 appointments with Mr Scott, including for fillers, Botox and threads. Mr Scott said he only carried out procedures at some of these appointments.

Andrea sold jewellery and borrowed money to pay for the treatments, which added up to thousands of pounds, but says the reaction got worse.

In October 2022, she says she went to hospital, barely able to open her eyes. In letters from plastic surgeons seen by the BBC, Andrea was told her reactions were caused by the cosmetic procedures.

A cosmetics expert who has since examined Andrea said her scarring was likely caused by an infection, which can occur from cosmetic procedures but is rare in a clean environment with good techniques.

The BBC is aware of at least three other complaints made about Mr Scott and the use of a fake qualification.

Two of those were made to registered practitioner service Save Face.

Director Ashton Collins said the people who reported “bad practice” by Mr Scott had chosen him because they were under the impression he was a doctor.

Health and safety officers from HCC visited Mr Scott’s premises in 2024 after concerns were raised about his credentials.

The council said it had found a number of issues requiring improvement but no formal action was taken because the business was receptive to its requests.

Mr Scott told the BBC the clinic had taken advice and “totally reviewed all our procedures” since then.

He added: “While we may have made mistakes in the beginning, we have always given 100% of our ability to our clients. We have learnt valuable lessons and progressed with ongoing training and development already.”

Warnings about the aesthetics industry have been made for years.

In 2013, a review of the regulation of cosmetics concluded dermal fillers were “a crisis waiting to happen” because anyone can be a practitioner, “with no requirement for knowledge, training or previous experience”.

In 2022, the Health and Care Act gave the government powers to introduce licensing for non-surgical cosmetic procedures in England. This is yet to be enacted.

The first death from a cosmetic procedure was recorded in the UK in 2024.

Dr Paul Charlson, who is an aesthetics doctor in East Yorkshire and member of the Joint Council for Cosmetics Practitioners (JCCP), warns there will be “more deaths and more disfigurement” unless the government “gets on with” enacting the legislation he helped to draw up alongside others across the industry.

“If the government said ‘we want this in in six months’, it could be done,” he said.

The JCCP said it had dealt with an “explosion in complaints” from local councils about poor practice in the sector. In 2023, it was aware of complaints from two local authorities, compared with 65 by the end of 2024.

A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson did not comment on Dr Charlson’s criticisms, but said it was “unacceptable” that people’s lives were at risk from “inadequately trained operators in the cosmetic sector”, and it was “urgently exploring options for further regulation”.

They urged anyone considering cosmetic procedures to find a reputable, insured and qualified practitioner.

Andrea says she has been scarred both mentally and physically, suffering regularly with pain in her face and says she has been diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder.

“I would never do it again and I would never advise anyone to do it,” she says.

Share your experience of getting fillers with reporter Caroline Bilton caroline.bilton@bbc.co.uk. Please leave a contact number if you are happy for Caroline or the team to get in touch.