PIP breast implant founder jailed for four years

Poly Implant Prothese founder Jean-Claude Mas leaves the courthouse in Marseille. Picture: Getty/AFP

Jean-Claude Mas, the founder of Poly Implant Prothese, received the prison sentence for aggravated fraud.

Mas also received a 75,000 euro (£63,000) fine at a court in Marseille.

Around 125,000 women underwent plastic surgery with PIP implants, which were filled with industrial-grade silicone and were prone to leak.

Defence lawyer Yves Haddad said Mas planned to appeal.

The court also ruled that the German product-testing company TUeV Rheinland, which cleared PIP for certification, was also a victim of Mas’s fraud, a decision that could affect thousands of women worldwide who have sought compensation.

It was not clear how the verdict affects an earlier judgment that ordered TUeV to pay damages to over 1,600 women and six distributors for the implants. TUeV denies responsibility and has promised to appeal against the commercial court ruling, which opens it to the possibility of at least 50 million euros (£42 million) in damages - about £2,500 per woman, lawyers say.

Mas has since dissolved the company.

Because PIP is bankrupt, the 5,000 women who have joined a complaint against the French company are unlikely to retrieve much compensation. But TUeV, a leader in the industry which was charged with checking the quality of the implants, has deep pockets.

PIP once claimed its factory in southern France exported to more than 60 countries and was among the world’s top implant makers. Government estimates show more than 42,000 women in Britain received the implants, more than 30,000 in France, 25,000 in Brazil, 16,000 in Venezuela and 15,000 in Colombia.