Backyard dentist who smoked during 'horror movie' surgery avoids jail
An unqualified dentist who smoked and used unclean equipment while performing backyard surgery has avoided jail – to his victim's and a Melbourne magistrate's lament.
Patients said Muhammet Velipasaoglu, 65, dropped tools and picked them up again to use, smoked and talked on the phone while performing procedures and did not wash his hands or wear gloves.
With no assistant to help, Velipasaoglu asked patients to hold tools while he worked.
Certified in his native Turkey, the dentist's qualifications were not recognised in Australia.
Patient Sammie Matheson dobbed the man into authorities after a visit that ended in nine root canals.
She described her five hours in Velipasaoglu's chair as being something out of a horror movie.
"It was like he was literally drilling into my teeth, but like hacking them," she said about the procedure that's left her with physical and emotional scars.
"I don't talk or laugh so people can notice my teeth because I'm just really self-conscious."
Velipasaoglu pled guilty to 17 charges in Broadmeadows Magistrates Court and sentenced to 250 hours community service and ordered to pay a $20,000 fine plus $13,000 in court costs.
In sentencing, Deputy Chief Magistrate Robert Kumar said Velipasaoglu deserved jail but he was regrettably unable to deliver that punishment.
"If I had the ability to impose a term of imprisonment I would've, but my hands are virtually tied," he said.
Matheson agreed, saying: "He really should be behind bars."
News break - August 13
