– Judge jails fake dentist who worked in filthy conditions
(UK Mail Online): A fake dentist who conned elderly patients into paying up to £1,400 for wonky sets of false teeth has been condemned as a charlatan by a judge. Stephen Sickelmore, 52, posed as a qualified professional when he visited patients all over Devon and Cornwall and took impressions of their mouths.
But the only impression he left was a bad one as he conned £200,000 out of unsuspecting clients – money that the court hope to confiscate from him.
He then returned to his home in Dawlish, Devon, where he knocked up dentures in a squalid utility room which was said to be ‘an unhygienic mess’.
Many patients of his Denture Clinic were left with painful, ill-fitting dentures while others were embarrassed to be seen in public wearing them after teeth chipped or fell out.  
Sicklemore had done an apprenticeship as a dental technician when he was young but his qualifications had expired and he was operating illegally.   
Sicklemore, 52, admitted operating as an unqualified dentist and two counts of using unfair business practices. 
He was yesterday jailed for nine months, suspended for two years by Judge Graham Cottle at Exeter Crown Court, and ordered to do 180 hours unpaid community work.  
The judge told him: “There is a certain arrogance about your attitude to this case. You knew you did not have the qualifications you needed to do this work.  
“You received a warning from the British Dental Council in August 2008 but you continued to deliver services when you were aware you were breaching the regulations.  
“You believed your skills and experience were such that you could carry on regardless. You saw the regulations as an inconvenient piece of bureaucracy.  
“The bottom line is that you pretended to be somebody you were not. You had no regulation, supervision or insurance but you took money from vulnerable elderly people who you supplied with poorly fitted, poorly made dentures. These resulted in pain and discomfort.
“The photographs taken at your home show what can only be described as a deeply unhygienic mess.  
“You made quite a lot of money out of this over two and a half years and it is a serious breach of trust.  
“It goes further than that because it affects public confidence in the industry as a whole when somebody is engaged in charlatan type behaviour.” 
Divorced Sicklemore, a father of two, advertised his business as ‘The Denture Clinic’ in Yellow Pages.
He visited people in their homes to take impressions for teeth moulds, which he was not legally qualified to do, then made the botched new sets at the ‘laboratory’ in his four bedroom home.
Prosecutor David Sapiecha said: “Many customers were elderly and some were confused and vulnerable. He advertised in Devon and Cornwall as using the latest technology and offering an exact fit. This was nonsense but he was chosen at times ahead of legitimate operators.”
The prosecutor added: “He was not a clinical dental technician or a dentist. He underwent a five year dental technician apprenticeship many years ago but it has become more and more regulated.”
Of the makeshift ‘laboratory’, Mr Sapiecha said: “This should be a sterile sanitised environment. It is an absolute mess.”
Sicklemore had continued plying his illegal trade despite having been warned not to in 2008.
Complaints about Sicklemore’s work included a man who lost a tooth from his dentures which left him feeling ‘self-conscious’ and another whose porcelain set of teeth were chipped and were sent for repair but never returned. Others found that their dentures broke the first time they were used.
If they complained, Sicklemore fobbed them off for months rather than repaying them.
Mouth plates that should be used just once to take impressions had been used several times, the court heard.
Sicklemore was paid up to £800 a time for his services, according to a diary listing appointments with his 168 customers and how much he charged them which Devon Trading Standards found when they raided his home.
He kept searchers talking during the raid, while his ex-wife left the home with a large bag – the contents of which remain unknown, the court heard.
Since his business was shut down, Sicklemore has been living on £44 a week benefits and his home is to be repossessed.
Mr Rupert Taylor, defending, said Sickelmore had many satisfied customers who had written testimonials including one in verse.  
He said: “He had carried out a long apprenticeship. This was not casual carpentry. He has lost his marriage and his home as a result of this case.”  
There will be a confiscation hearing later to try and seize any assets that may be left over.
After the case Peter Green from Devon Trading Standards said his ‘laboratory’ was in a frankly appalling state.  
Victims said that Sickelmore had ‘betrayed their trust and let them down’.