A SPANISH doctor alleged to have performed a series of botched hair transplants at a Glasgow clinic may be banned from working in the UK.

A medical tribunal, which gets underway today, will investigate whether Dr Juan Ruiz Alconero is fit to practise following a string of complaints.

The medic, who qualified in Madrid in 1998, is accused of carrying out substandard hair transplant surgeries on four patients at KSL Hair in Glasgow between August 2016 and January 2017.

At the time, it is alleged that Dr Alconero was not registered with the General Medical Council, and did not hold a licence to practise - a criminal offence in the UK.

All doctors working in the UK, regardless of nationality, must be registered with the GMC - the professional regulator - and hold a license to practise.

READ MORE: Increasing demand for hair transplants in Scotland 

This permits them to prescribe medication and perform treatments, but it also means they are subject to revalidation - a process by which the regulator can check that their skills and knowledge are up to date.

It is also alleged that Dr Alconero did not hold adequate insurance or indemnity cover at the time that he carried out these procedures.

This is a legal requirement for any doctor practising medicine in the UK in order to ensure that patients have access to compensation if they are harmed as a result of medical negligence.

Glasgow-based KSL Hair, whose famous clients had included former Celtic stars Leigh Griffiths and Anthony Stokes, closed after a number of customers mounted legal action against the firm describing "horrendous scarring" and "traumatic and horrible" procedures.

KSL Hair was voluntarily wound up in October 2017 and placed into liquidation, while Glasgow-based KSL Medical had its licence to perform hair treatments suspended by Healthcare Improvement Scotland in 2018.

A separate company, KSL Clinic England, continues to operate hair loss services in Kent and Manchester but is CQC-regulated and unrelated to either KSL Hair or Dr Alconero.

READ MORE: 'Why I had a hair transplant' - Brian Beacom

The case against Dr Alconero is being held at the Medical Practitioners' Tribunal Service (MPTS) headquarters in Manchester and is expected to last 10 days.

The MPTS is responsible for adjudicating on allegations of misconduct brought by the GMC, and is responsible for sanctioning doctors whose fitness to practise is found to be impaired.

Doctors can be temporarily suspended from practising or, in the most serious cases, struck off.

In its summary of the allegations against Dr Alconero, the MPTS states: "The tribunal will inquire into the allegation that, between August 2016 and January 2017, Dr Ruiz Alconero, without being registered with the GMC and knowing that he did not hold a licence to practise, performed hair transplant surgery on four patients and failed to provide good clinical care to them.

"Further, it is alleged that Dr Ruiz Alconero did not have adequate insurance or indemnity cover when he carried out the procedures."

It is also alleged that Dr Alconero acted dishonestly in October 2016 when he submitted an online application for registration with the GMC "in which he failed to declare all of his work experience from the previous five years and falsely confirmed that the information he had provided was correct and true".

Hair transplant surgery in the UK can cost anything from £1000 to £30,000. The operation is carried out in a day and involves either grafting individual hairs into tiny cuts in the scalp, or cutting a strip of skin with hair from the back of the head which is then divided and implanted into the balding area.