A beautician from Dublin was fined €10,000 for illegally offering Botox-like procedures to her clients.

When Anne Rossi, proprietor of the Anne Rossi Clinic in Clontarf, Dublin 3, was found to have violated the Irish Medicines Board Act, the Health Products Regulatory Authority (HPRA) filed charges against her. The Health Products Regulatory Authority is responsible for regulating pharmaceuticals in Ireland (HPRA).

For each charge, she issued a not-guilty plea.

For the first part of 2017, the trial before Judge John Brennan in Dublin District Court was marred by questions of law about the admissibility of purported evidence. Afterward, defense and prosecution counsel asked the High Court for clarity.

On Wednesday, the District Court prosecution picked back up, and HPRA attorney Brian Gageby stated eight counts might be dropped.

Judge Brennan concluded the case by levying fines of €10,000 with eight months to pay on the remaining ten charges. He also established the recognition amount to be €300 in the event of an appeal.

Although not a product mentioned in the allegations, Botox is a trademarked brand name, according to testimony during the trial. Botulinum toxin A was the same active ingredient in both; hence, it was used as a generic designation for related goods.

Niall McCarthy, an inspector with the HPRA, said during the trial that he visited Ms. Rossi’s house on Howth Road in Raheny, Dublin, after receiving a search warrant. A supplier of health supplies discovered invoices for the medicine Dysport, which is similar to Botox. She informed him that Dysport was available on her company’s property.

The trial heard that Dysport was discovered in a clinic refrigerator and that Ms. Rossi, a former mental health nurse, was questioned while under oath. Mr. McCarthy said that she admitted that she had been giving Botox-like treatments with Dysport for the past year.

At trial, she admitted charging between €250 and €300 per injection, which she said she received from customers.

The best cosmetic procedures are only available with a doctor’s prescription.

He stated when he inquired about it, Ms. Rossi responded, “I knew I was on a sticky wicket for the last year or two.” He asserted that she was aware that the medication was prescription-only.

Apparently, she told the HPRA inspector that she had been searching for a physician to perform the procedure at her clinic but had been unsuccessful.

Dysport, which contains botulinum toxin A, is available only with a doctor’s prescription. The prosecution argued that it was illegally imported into the state and injected into patients at Ms. Rossi’s clinic. The prosecution argued that only a medical professional or pharmacist could perform the procedure.

Three women testified in court that they had received Botox injections from Ms. Rossi at the cosmetic clinic in 2014 and 2015, without the presence of a medical doctor.

In court, Dr. Muckesh Lalloo, a skin surgeon at the HSE clinic in Dublin’s Blanchardstown Primary Care Centre, testified that a patient presented to him with “one brow lower than the other” and that he had subsequently filed a report with the HPRA.

A freeze-inducing neurotoxin called a Botulinum Toxin was likely administered “inexpertly,” he said.

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