Beautician found guilty of helping to provide unlicensed medical services in Hong Kong
Lau Lo helped to administer botulinum toxin injection to victim, who suffered blurred vision, problems chewing and increased heartbeat
A beautician has been found guilty of helping to provide unlicensed medical services at a now-closed beauty centre in Hong Kong and causing a customer to suffer side effects, such as blurred version, after an injection was performed by the centre manager two years ago.
Kowloon City Court Magistrate Kestrel Lam Tsz-hong on Wednesday convicted Lau Lo, 38, of one count of performing medical treatments without registration that resulted in personal injury. The victim received a botulinum toxin injection to her face at CC Beauty in Jordan on November 7, 2022.
Centre manager Zhang Min, who performed the injection, earlier pleaded guilty over her role in taking charge of the injections on three customers and was sentenced to four months in prison in March.
The court was told the victim, who was a friend of the defendant’s, suffered from side effects such as blurred vision, problems chewing and an increased heartbeat soon after the injection.
Lo pleaded not guilty and defended herself during the trial. She told the court that even though she knew Zhang was not a doctor, she “genuinely” believed Zhang was permitted by Hong Kong law to operate medical injections after she saw a “certificate for injection” with the woman’s name on it.
The magistrate said he accepted the defendant’s testimony and believed she had made an effort to check Zhang’s qualifications, but added her defence could not justify the “wilful ignorance”.