Fugitive surgeon ‘Doctor Death’ arrested in Spain

SPANISH police have arrested French plastic surgeon Michel Maure, who had been at large after being charged with disfiguring and endangering the lives of 96 women in France.

Maure, 59, was detained in Empuriabrava, in the northeastern Spanish province of Girona.

He was sent to the Roses police station in Girona from where he await his extradition to France.

Maure, the self-styled “best [doctor] in plastic surgery in the world,” was arrested in France in 2004 on charges of false advertising, cheating and causing the deformity to 96 of his patients, as a result of his surgery operations from 1990 to 2004.

The French prosecutor has demanded a four-year imprisonment and a fine of about €75,000 against Maure.

Maure, whose movement was restricted during the trial, went missing in July, two months before his verdict due in September.

The French police issued an arrest warrant against him and intensified contact with their Spanish counterparts to track the fugitive, as they were convinced he was hiding in Spain.

The surgeon has been dubbed “Dr Death” back home.

Hundreds of women subjected themselves to Maure’s treatment, attracted by his competitive prices and promises he would make them look more beautiful.

But then many complained that their silicone implants slipped, their scars became infected and their plumped-up lips looked deformed. Investigators found he had treated his patients with expired drugs and illegal animal-based sutures. His surgical installations were “dirty and badly maintained“, the court found.

He was accused of leaving his victims physically and psychologically scarred with botched breast implants, liposuction, facelifts and nose remodelling.

He failed to administer enough local anaesthetic, inflicting severe agony on his patients, prosecutors said.

The remodelled breast of one woman slid to her armpit overnight, the court heard, while another found her shoes filling with blood after a terrifying midriff liposuction.

The prosecutor accused Maure of putting his clients’ lives at risk, and the court found him guilty of “false publicity, aggravated fraud, endangering lives and of inflicting involuntary wounds”.