A judge yesterday complimented one of Europe's foremost hair transplant surgeons for the procedure he carried out on the balding pate of a secondhand car dealer.
Then she ordered Michael McKey to pay up for his new groomed look - €17,000 which he owed Maurice P Collins.
Judge Doirbhile Flanagan said she could not accept that Mr McKey, of Coillmhara, Shannon, Co Clare, really believed the initial €2,000 he paid as a consultation fee and deposit was the full price of the transplant operation.
She told John Hogan, counsel for Dr Collins, that there had been no explanation why Mr McKey had taken no steps to query the final demand for €16,900 on top of a €250 consultation fee and a deposit of €1,750.
Dr Collins, who carries out hair transplant procedures for singers, actors and other celebrities, said that when he first saw Mr McKey in June 2005 he was thinning to the frontal area, although there was still a visible hairline remnant. He had good donor hair to the back of his head.
He told Mr Hogan he had outlined to Mr McKey that he would require transplantation of some 2,000 follicle units from the back of his head to the front at a cost of €10 per unit for the first 1,000 and €9.50 for each subsequent unit.
He said that although his administration staff dealt with financial matters he was aware that Mr McKey was aware the initial consultation fee was €250 and that he would have to pay a deposit of €1,750 before the transplant operation took place.
Dr Collins said Mr McKey had signed a detailed consent form regarding the procedure and had booked surgery with his personal assistant, Audrey Heffernan. The transplant had been carried out in October 2005 and he was very happy with the outcome.
He told Mr Hogan that further thinning of Mr McKey's hair as seen in photographs taken two years after the procedure was due to loss of his native hair. The hair transplants were still growing strongly.
Ms Heffernan told the court she had outlined the full costs of the procedure to Mr McKey before he had left the clinic on the day of consultation and she had given him a printed structure of all costs involved.
When she had telephoned Mr McKey in December 2005 about payment he had not mentioned anything about believing the procedure cost only €2,000.
Mr McKey (49) said he dealt in sales and repairs of secondhand cars and had been told by Dr Collins at the consultation stage that the total cost would be €2,000. He said he had paid a deposit of €250 and the remaining €1,750 prior to the surgery.
"About three weeks after the procedure I got an invoice which shocked me and which I could not make head nor tail of for months," he said.
He told Mr Hogan he was making a counter claim for the sum being demanded.
Awarding Dr Collins €16,900 for breach of contract and his legal costs, she said it seemed to her from photographs and what she had seen in court that an excellent result had been achieved in terms of the procedure carried out. She struck out Mr McKey's counter claim.