Woman with PIP implants given refund

A bank has given a woman with PIP breast implants her money back after they were found to have ruptured.

The woman, who lives in the Midlands, was refunded £3,700 by Lloyds TSB as the implants she paid for on her credit card turned out to be faulty.

Insurance for items purchased on a credit card covers products which cost more than £100 and are faulty.

The woman, who does not wish to be identified, is one of around 40,000 in the UK who had PIP implants.

The implants were banned after it was discovered they were being made from industrial quality silicone, rather than the medical variety.

The woman said she had found a lump and visited a breast cancer clinic. She added: "I was quite worried, but I was told it was just a rupture of my implants. It was only later I realised there was a health risk. I was really quite poorly with it."

Although the company that sold the woman her implants had gone into administration, she applied to Lloyds TSB for a refund and received her money back in three months. 

The British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons (BAAPS) said the decison should provide a "ray of hope" to other women with the implants. 

Fazel Fatah, a consultant plastic surgeon and president of BAAPS, said: "We're delighted that at least a proportion of women who chose this method of payment should now have recourse to securing reimbursement for what are clearly defective, substandard goods." 

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