Celebrity surgeon dubbed the ‘Boob God’ has accused ex-patient of running smear campaign against him

An art dealer who says she was traumatised by a botched nose job at the hands of a celebrity surgeon dubbed the ‘Boob God’ is facing the threat of jail after being accused of running a smear campaign against him. 

Dr Riccardo Frati, a Harley Street surgeon alleged modern art dealer Karen Bowen-Carter led an online smear campaign against him, claiming he ‘fraudulently provided half price surgery to celebrities in exchange for false social media reviews.’

Dr Frati is now suing Ms Bowen-Carter for libel over one specific post which stated: ‘The whole five-star rating is clearly fake as there is no way in the world this man can be called professional’.

The surgeon claims the post went on to claim he offered ‘half-price nose job or breast implants’ to celebrities in return for an endorsement and portrayed him as ‘perpetrating a fraudulent scam’.

Ms Bowen-Carter is facing the threat of jail for contempt of court after surgeon Dr Riccardo Frati applied to have her sent to prison claiming she continued to contact patients of his, in breach of her promise. 

The Harley Street surgeon also claims Ms Bowen-Carter had threatened to make claims against him on daytime TV unless she is given a full refund for her treatment.

In July 2021 Dr Frati applied for an injunction against the art dealer, which was settled on the terms she agreed not to contact him, his staff or patients.

But the doctor claims she has reached out to four former and current patients on social media.

Dr Riccardo Frati is a top Harley Street surgeon who has operated on celebrities including Towie’s Gemma Collins and Big Brother’s Aisleyne Horgan-Wallace.

Dr Frati has been lauded online by former patients as the ‘Boob God’ for his work, including giving model Aisleyne the ‘biggest’ boob implants allowed in the UK.

But Ms Bowen-Carter claims she was unable to breathe properly following rhinoplasty, and was ‘extremely unhappy with the standard of his surgery and his pre and postoperative care’. 

Dr Frati claims Mrs Bowen-Carter, 54, has deliberately spread lies online, claiming that he has ‘fraudulently’ given celebs cut-price treatments to get positive reviews.

He is suing her for libel, malicious falsehood and harassment at the High Court and in 2021 she agreed to an undertaking not to contact him, his staff or patients.

His barrister, top libel specialist David Sherborne, who also appeared for Johnny Depp, claimed the medic was reluctantly taking action against Ms Bowen-Carter as a last resort, saying: ‘he has been driven to do so by her repeated breaches’.

‘He now applies for an order that she be made subject to such penalty as the court thinks appropriate for contempt of court for her breaching undertakings she personally gave to the court,’ he added.

One of the four patients was contacted by Ms Bowen-Carter via Instagram under the pseudonym ‘RoxyRox’ where she accused one woman to have posted a false social media review of her surgery by Dr Frati.

The message from Ms Bowen-Carter alleged the woman’s review to be ‘a plant for The Frati-Mafia’, the court heard.

‘Despite the warning from the claimant’s solicitor for breaching the undertaking…and the acceptance she shouldn’t have done that from her solicitors…… she contacted more patients,’ Mr Sherborne said.

However, Mrs Bowen-Carter denies being in contempt of court and says the legal promises she made might not even be binding because she was suffering with crippling anxiety at the time she signed.

She also claims that the undertakings required of her were ‘ambiguous and unclear’ in barring her from contacting, intimidating or harassing Dr Frati’s patients, as the terms failed to make clear whether this included past as well as current patients.

Edward Lamb, for Ms Bowen-Carter, told the court his client had begun posting about Dr Frati following her own ‘unhappy’ experience at his hands.

Dr Frati’s libel action has been mounted against Ms Bowen-Carter ‘in respect of a post made by her as a review on one of Dr Frati’s Google business profile accounts’, he explained.

Ms Bowen-Carter felt troubled by six cosmetic procedures carried out on her by Dr Frati in November 2020 for which he charged £25,000, said Mr Lamb.

‘She was extremely unhappy with the standard of his surgery and his pre and postoperative care,’ added the barrister.

‘Ms Bowen-Carter was left in physical pain and the results of the surgery were not being able to breathe properly following rhinoplasty and being unable to walk or straighten up properly.

‘The deleterious effects made her feel very anxious and depressed,’ said Mr Lamb.

She then published a series of online reviews ‘in order to try and ensure that other patients were made aware of her experience of Dr Frati’s work’, he told the judge, Mrs Justice Farbey.

Dr Frati is one of the UK’s premier cosmetic surgeons, having operated on a host of celebrities and models, including several from the cast of TOWIE.

In 2019, former Big Brother star Aisleyne claimed to have had the biggest implants allowed in the UK from the surgeon, and in 2020, he featured on Gemma’s reality show ‘Diva Forever and Ever’ discussing plans for a reduction of her 2-stone boobs.

Mr Sherborne has emphasised that Dr Frati vehemently denies any allegations of giving cheap surgery for good reviews.

Before posting the allegedly libelous review in May last year, Mrs Bowen-Carter – who he operated on in November 2020 – had contacted him demanding a refund and ‘compensation,’ he claimed.

She said that if she did not receive the payments she would be contacting daytime TV shows to ‘expose’ him, continued the barrister.

Soon afterwards, she posted on Google words which the doctor claims would be read as an allegation that he had ‘fraudulently provided half-price surgery to celebrities in exchange for false social media reviews.’

‘It is false that he has offered any such cut price services for celebrities for some kind of review,’ he said.

‘The defendant knew full well that was untrue.’

Her aim in then posting on Google was to ’cause as much damage as possible’ to his business and ‘effectively to blackmail him into paying substantial sums of money,’ he added.

As part of his case in 2021 the doctor applied for an injunction against Mrs Bowen-Carter, which she settled by agreeing legal ‘undertakings’ not to contact him, his staff or patients.

However over the subsequent year, she had ‘repeatedly contacted and harassed patients of the claimant,’ said Mr Sherborne.

‘It was hoped this would stop but this hasn’t happened and that has led to the application,’ he added.

Defending Ms Bowen-Carter, Edward Lamb, told the court: ‘All the defendant was trying to do was find support from fellow, in her words, ‘victims’ of the claimant for the purpose of emotional support for the purpose of sharing experiences, which apart from anything else, on a human level, was an important element of the defendant’s conduct.’ 

And the case has now reached the court for a final hearing to determine whether Ms Bowen-Carter has committed a contempt of court.

If found in breach of the legal undertakings, Ms Bowen-Carter will be in contempt of court and could face up to two years in prison.

The hearing continues.