A STOURBRIDGE beauty boss says a TV expose into the illegal Botox trade - featuring a former nurse from her clinic - has been a "wake up call" to the industry.

Sara McMaster, owner of Esteem Cosmetic Clinic in Hagley Road, has spoken out after former practitioner James Kearsey was featured on the BBC's Inside Out programme on Monday as part of an investigation into unlicensed Botox injections.

Mr Kearsey, who advertises under the name Estetica Cosmetics on Facebook and who has worked on a freelance basis at Esteem, was suspended in November 2015 by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) after failing to declare a conviction for assault to his bosses at Dudley's Russells Hall Hospital.

The suspension made it illegal for him to prescribe medicine (including Botox) but programme-makers claim Mr Kearsey agreed to a consultation at his Stourbridge home where he is alleged to have told a reporter he was a nurse consultant, sterilised her forehead and made preparations to inject her before she told him she felt sick and left.

As Botox - a prescription-only drug - can only be prescribed by a doctor, dentist or nurse in a specific patient's name, but it is not illegal for an untrained person to inject Botox.

Esteem Cosmetic Clinic swiftly issued a statement on its Facebook site stressing "no illegal prescribing or any unsafe activity took place on the premises of Esteem Cosmetic Clinic" and it stated Mr Kearsey's services have now been terminated.

The statement reads: "After careful evaluation, Esteem Cosmetic Clinic directors investigated Mr Kearsey’s suspended status with the NMC and decided it was in the best interest of public knowledge and safety to terminate Mr Kearsey’s services at Esteem Cosmetic Clinic."

Clinic owner Sara McMaster said seeing the industry and a former colleague thrust adversely into the spotlight in the TV documentary had been a "wake up call" and she added: "I would strongly advise any clinic owners to be cautious when taking on practitioners and to be vigilant in checking their qualifications more frequently.

"When James started with us he was a practising nurse prescriber at Russells Hall Hospital. He was on the Nurses Register and qualified to prescribe Botox.

"As clinic managers we do not check these credentials every month and there has to be an element of trust between the clinic and the practitioner.

"We regularly carry out customer surveys and received excellent feedback regarding Mr Kearsey’s work.

"We had no reason to doubt his ability to practice. It is the responsibility of the practitioner to advise us if anything changes with their qualification. James was an excellent practitioner who provided a high standard of work.

"We have been shocked and upset at recent events regarding Mr Kearsey and as soon as this information was passed to the clinic we acted upon it. Patient safety is paramount to us.

"Needless to say Mr Kearsey no longer works for Esteem. This is a real shame because our clients and I thought highly of him."

She also moved to quash concerns that Esteem had incorrectly referred to Mr Kearsey as Dr Kearsey on Facebook - saying: "We had a young receptionist who regularly put adverts on Facebook and probably in her innocence didn't realise she was putting something on that would be detrimental to the business. Lots of people call him a doctor and don't realise. This was an oversight on our part - as we missed it with our receptionist."

Mr Kearsey was not answering his phone when the News tried to make contact.

The full Inside Out report can be seen on the BBC iPlayer.