Begbies Traynor partner Paul Stanley has been brought in to investigate Harley Medical Centre Ltd following the collapse of the cosmetic surgery business late last year.

Creditors of Harley Medical Centre have appointed Stanley to investigate a number of transactions, including the removal of large dividends in 2010.

Leonard Curtis was appointed administrators to the company in November 2012 and sold the business to the directors through a new vehicle, Aesthetic and Cosmetic Surgery Ltd, in a pre-pack deal.

The administration was triggered by around £15m in claims from thousands of women fitted with faulty breast implants supplied by French firm, Poly Implant Protheses (PIP) which used industrial silicone originally intended for use in mattresses. Harley Medical Group is understood to have fitted around 13,900 faulty implants, around a third of the total in the UK and more than any other cosmetic surgery firm in the country.

Stanley said: 'The company accounts show large dividends were removed in 2010 and the creditors are concerned whether the directors at this time should have known that they were facing problems.

'I have been appointed to trace all these transactions to make sure that the business was being run in a proper manner by the directors prior to the administration and to investigate possible claims against the UK distributor of PIP implants.'

Stanley was previously involved in the hunt for Robert Maxwell's missing millions and led the investigation into The Accident Group (TAG), which collapsed in 2003 with debts of £100m, leaving 2,400 staff out of work.