Former NHS surgeon stripped of licence after £466,654 fraud

A former National Health Service surgeon who intentionally froze his own legs to have them amputated as part of a sexual fetish and then fraudulently claimed hundreds of thousands of pounds in insurance has been permanently barred from practicing medicine. Neil Hopper, 50, was struck off the medical register by a tribunal following his criminal conviction last year.

Hopper, a consultant vascular surgeon at the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro, was sentenced in September to 32 months in prison and given a 10-year sexual harm prevention order. He pleaded guilty to two counts of fraud by false representation and three counts of possessing extreme pornographic images.

The court heard that in April 2019, while his family was away, Hopper immersed his feet in dry ice, causing such severe damage that both legs required below-the-knee amputation. He subsequently told insurers, medical professionals, and the public that the amputations were the result of a life-threatening sepsis infection following a camping accident. He even repeated this claim during an appearance on a national television program. Based on these falsehoods, he received payouts totaling £466,653.81 from two insurance...