Doctor with a dangerous edge

DR MICHAEL SACHS is everything a high-powered New York plastic surgeon is supposed to be: rich, opinionated and a master of self-publicity, with lots of friends in high places.

He could be straight out of Nip/Tuck, the US television drama about the exploits of a pair of plastic surgeons and their clients.

He is also a charlatan, although he considers himself something of a crusader with a noble heart. According to the New York Times, Sachs once gave his children's nanny and his own masseuse some very special Christmas presents.