Rogue Dentist’s Widow Surfaces at Party Amid Relationship Rumors and $6.5M Home Buzz

For the 132 patients ripped off by rogue Perth dentist Dr David Hurst, the past six months since his sudden death have been a nightmare of pain, stalled insurance claims and growing frustration.

But while they chase compensation or corrective surgery, Hurst’s widow Clara is chasing the European summer.

I can exclusively reveal she jetted off last week on a six-week holiday with her two children, after farewelling Perth in style alongside a host of WA socialites.

She joined the likes of party planner Nina Ma’Belle Wiener and hotel and wine heiress Anna Fogarty at a 40th birthday bash where the guests posed in designer outfits and novelty sombreros.

Clara certainly didn’t appear to be under any strain in the photos, which were passed on to me by a source after previously being posted on Instagram.

But perhaps she should be. 

After Dr Hurst, 43, died at Crown Perth on December 10, it was revealed he had siphoned $7.1 million out of his Perth practice, rendering it insolvent.

Dr Hurst’s patients had prepaid more than $2.3million for dental implants and other expensive procedures, many under pressure and drawing on their superannuation.

Their hopes of clawing any of it back rest on Clara, who is the executor of her late husband’s estate. Yet multiple patients tell me they are growing frustrated by the lack of progress and updates.

Meanwhile, Clara’s Spanish-style mansion in ritzy Claremont is getting a facelift of its own, with busy tradesmen seen on-site as the family holidays abroad. 

According to my insiders, Clara has hired one of Australia’s most sought-after interior designers to handle the redesign, Phoebe Nicol. 

She is also drawing inspiration from Pinterest – an online visual discovery platform for creatives – where she has a public pinboard with design ideas for her lavish estate.

Clara maintains the ongoing renovation of her Claremont property is being solely funded by her own means. We do not suggest otherwise.

‘I have not received a dollar from the estate of my late husband, and it appears the estate is currently insolvent,’ she previously told me via her crisis communications representative.

Meanwhile, school gate rumours are circulating that the $6.5million home will soon hit the market and that Clara plans to leave Perth for good following its sale.

I recently learned that she and David once enjoyed a globe-trotting lifestyle of luxury holidays that was only interrupted by a period of estrangement that ended with a reconciliation sometime in mid-2023.

Last year, the society couple holidayed in Beverly Hills, Aspen and Hawaii alongside wealthy Perth duo Guy and Kristine Hodgson. A Facebook photo dated to September indicated the Hursts were staying at the Waldorf Astoria Maldives.

I’m reliably informed that while in Europe, Clara will return to her Ibiza home, where she’ll likely reunite with her sisters – influencer Crista and interior designer Ana – who both live on the Mediterranean outpost.

Clara, who claims she was born in Paris, raised in Ibiza and educated in UK, has said previously that her father is an architect and her mother is an Oxford professor.

Sources say that while she is close to her sisters, she is estranged from her parents.

Clara is the brains behind the luxury salon Blanc in Cottesloe, and is a co-founder of the online prescription skincare company The Secret.

I’ve been told, however, that there is a rift within The Secret and she is no longer on speaking terms with her business partner Dr Deb Cohen-Jones.

In the immediate aftermath of Dr David Hurst’s death last December, Clara stepped in as caretaker of his business.

It was then she uncovered a devastating truth her husband had hidden from her: his seemingly thriving dental practice, Perth Dental Rooms, had been trading insolvent since June 2023.

At the insistence of David Hurst, patients had paid upfront, with many drawing money from their superannuation on compassionate grounds.

Dozens of patients who had paid tens of thousands of dollars received only partial treatment before Dr Hurst’s sudden death. They were the fortunate ones. Others were left with nothing – or worse, with work so poorly executed it would require corrective surgery.

Amanda McQuillan, 56, from Greenwood in Perth’s north, paid Dr Hurst $60,000 from her super for dental implants after surviving a domestic violence incident that left her with permanent nerve damage in her teeth.

‘I knew from the age of 24 that my teeth were all going to fall out. I brought up three children on my own. I couldn’t afford to get my teeth done [then] – they are all grown now.

‘I thought, “I’m 56, I’ve still got life in me. I’m going to take the money out and get my teeth fixed so I’m not reminded every morning of what happened to me 30 years ago.”‘

Amanda said Dr Hurst was charming and professional at her initial consultation. But at her second appointment, she began to feel uneasy.

‘During my second appointment when I had my scans he looked like he’d had a big night on the booze,’ she recalled.

‘He looked tired, he hadn’t shaved. That’s when alarm bells started ringing in my head. What would happen if he wasn’t around following my surgery?

‘He was stunned when I asked him and he reiterated that would not happen. His receptionist added he was covered by insurance if anything were to happen.’

Dr Hurst initially assured her the procedure would be completed before Christmas. But the date was pushed to February.

Then, in December, he died. Amanda never received a single treatment.

Annette Young, 56, from Madora Bay, has lived with chronic pain for more than 30 years after a hit-and-run accident left most of her teeth destroyed.

Desperate for relief, she paid Dr Hurst $52,800 for a combination of implants and veneers. Instead, she now struggles to eat and lives with constant discomfort following what she describes as botched dental work.

‘He grinded my teeth down that much that I’ve had one [tooth] removed and one has died,’ Annette said.

‘I have also had to spend a further $3,000 on a root canal.

‘I’ve looked into getting them fixed in Bangkok, but that’s another huge expense and too far from home if any issues arise.’

It also emerged during the course of my investigation that Dr Hurst had arrived in Australia from the UK with a tarnished reputation more than a decade ago.

The dentist, from the Vale of Glamorgan in south-east Wales, had received a suspended jail sentence in 2012 after admitting 69 counts of theft totalling £15,584 (about AU$41,225 in today’s money) from Britain’s National Health Service.

He relocated permanently to Australia in 2013 where he seemingly had no problem re-registering as a dentist despite his criminal record in Britain.