Fake doctor caught in sting operation injecting guests at Botox-and-filler party gets sent back to jail

A Vancouver woman who claimed she was a doctor and was caught on video by undercover investigators as she injected guests at a private Botox-and-filler party has been sent back to jail to finish half of her original six-month sentence. Maria Ezzati, who was released in February after the B.C. Court of Appeal granted her application for a stay of her sentence, had asked for a 12-month conditional sentence that she could serve at home, according to CBC News. She had argued the original six-month sentence was punitive and did not take into account her prospects of rehabilitation. She also said the brief time she spent in jail triggered past experiences of abuse and violence, which she claimed included assaults in Canada and in her former home country of Ireland. "[Ezzati] says she has recurring nightmares about the prospect of being incarcerated again," Justice Gregory Fitch wrote for the appeal court majority. "She says she was placed in an observation cell on suicide watch for 72 hours. She was stripped of clothing and segregated. She says this experience triggered traumatic memories of being forcibly confined and violently assaulted in the past." Read: Do I really need to be making the case for a third dose? But while Fitch and two other Court of Appeal judges agreed the original six-month sentence was “demonstrably unfit” and “excessively punitive,” they deemed it appropriate for Ezzati to spend some time in incarceration. To determine the right sentence, the judges referred to two comparative cases: one involving an Abbotsford, B.C. woman who called herself “Dr. Lipjob” and injected at Botox parties using supplies obtained with a forged licence, and another case involving two unlicensed B.C. dentists who operated out of their homes. One of these dentists received a three-month jail sentence while the woman who went by the moniker of Dr. Lipjob got two 30-day sentences plus two years of probation. Read: B.C. woman, fake doctor, jailed for repeatedly administering Botox As they handed down Ezzati’s sentence, the judges asked the warden at the jail where Ezzati will return to pay attention to her claims of mistreatment during her brief stay. Fitched also noted in the majority decision that Ezzati failed to substantiate this alleged mistreatment at the hands of Corrections officials. According to Fitch, Ezzati “has been found to be untrustworthy. She has been found to lie to the court in the past.” Indeed, Ezzati continued to administer Botox and filler injections even after the college, through a court order granted in July 2017, banned her from providing any service that can only be legally provided by registered practitioners and told her to stop referring to herself as a doctor. Read: QUIZ: Do you know the latest on Botox injections? After a two-day Supreme Court hearing in 2018, Ezzati was found in contempt of the court order based on the judge’s conclusion that she advertised herself as qualified to practise medicine, called herself a doctor, and advised clients of the risks and benefits of Botox and fillers for cosmetic purposes. However, the court did not find evidence that Ezzati continued to inject Botox and fillers while subject to the court order. In February 2020, based on social media postings, the college sent undercover investigators to a Botox-and-filler party at a private residence, where they took videos of Ezzati injecting three guests and accepting cash payments for the service. The college subsequently filed an application with B.C. Supreme Court to have Ezzati found in contempt of court again. Ezzati didn't respond or attend the first day of the contempt hearing, saying she was ill and needed to be tested for COVID-19. She subsequently failed to provide her COVID test results as directed by the court and claimed she was too ill for the hearing to be rescheduled. However, the college obtained an affidavit from someone who received injections from Ezzati—believing she was a doctor—during the time she was supposed to be sick. This person said in the affidavit that Ezzati did not appear to be ill. Armed with this additional information, the college rescheduled its contempt hearing, which resulted in a six-month sentence for Ezzati. "Ms. Ezzati did not learn anything from the process of the first contempt," wrote the judge in that case. "She continually breached court orders and lied about it . . . she was defiant." During this trial, the college presented proof that Ezzati had injected dozens of people at Botox parties, including one customer who developed a lump the size of a golf ball after being injected. Read: Look again: Naturopath to be reinvestigated in death of mentally ill patient who got vitamin infusions

Fake doctor caught in sting operation injecting guests at Botox-and-filler party gets sent back to jail

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