The country's booming cosmetic surgery industry is under fire this weekend for using illegal advertisements and defying its own rules with 'hard-sell' tactics. It is also facing allegations that it is neglecting patient safety in its pursuit of profits.

Following an investigation by The Observer and consumers' association Which? the head of the industry's own trade association admitted last night that 'bad practice' is rife.

Some clinics are breaking the law by allowing unqualified staff to prescribe Botox; others are not giving clients enough time to consider whether they need surgery; and some are risking patients' health because their staff do not know what to do if a customer has a severe allergic reaction to an anti-wrinkle injection.

They are also offering two-for-one offers to encourage women to agree to operations.

Sally Taber, director of Independent Healthcare Advisory Services , which represents the biggest chain of clinics, said the dossier of evidence from Which? detailing 'pressure selling' and dubious practice by some of the country's best-known clinics, accurately reflected poor behaviour on the part of a number of operators. The evidence collated by Which? features 20 examples of alleged wrongdoing by firms that exhibited at the recent Body Beautiful trade fair in London. It alleges that the Harley Medical Group and Forma both handed out promotional material at the show advertising Botox, in contravention of guidelines drawn up by the medicines and healthcare products regulatory agency, which licenses drugs for use in the UK.

Taber said: 'Which? has given me a lot of examples. I'm pretty horrified about them. I was horrified to receive this letter. But I wasn't surprised, because we knew there was bad practice going on.'

Meanwhile, the Metropolitan Police is investigating the case of a woman who was recently caught acting illegally by calling herself 'doctor' and prescribing Botox at a London beauty clinic, even though she is not registered with the General Medical Council. The agency reported the woman to the police after it visited the premises where she was prescribing the drug. Only registered doctors, dentists and a few nurses are allowed to prescribe medicines.

The number of cosmetic surgery treatments undertaken in Britain has soared from 202,000 in 2001 to about 700,000 in 2005. About 85 per cent of those involve non-surgical treatments, such as Botox and laser hair removal, and only 15 per cent are breast operations, 'tummy tucks' or liposuction.

Douglas McGeorge, president of the British Association of Aesthetic Plastic Surgeons, launched a stinging attack on the industry.

He said there were too many 'cowboy clinicians' who give people Botox injections and dermal fillers to tackle wrinkles in order to make money, even though they know it will have little effect, and carry out image-enhancing surgical procedures despite not having appropriate qualifications.

'Sadly some of the unscrupulous clinics encourage people to have multiple surgical procedures, even though they may not be indicated [as necessary],' McGeorge added. 'Some of the well-known clinics are encouraging patients to have surgical procedures that they may not otherwise have considered, and I think that's bad practice. They are giving patients problems in the hope of getting them to sign up for more surgery. The treatment is therefore for the clinic's benefit, not the patient's.'

He called for the entire £360m-a-year market in aesthetic treatments to be policed by the Healthcare Commission, the NHS regulator for England, so that substandard premises could be shut down.

A Department of Health spokesman said: 'People should have all the facts before going ahead with potentially life-changing cosmetic surgery. There is a balance to be struck as to how far the taxpayer should be expected to pay for the regulation and policing of such procedures.'