Alleged Plastic Surgery Fraudster Busted
CORAL GABLES (CBS4) - It's a startling development in a story we told you about first and exclusively on November 5th on CBS4 News.
Police say a Miami woman who they initially arrested for stealing a man's identity to finance $8,000 in plastic surgery has been taken into custody again.
This time, Detective Carlos Baixauli told CBS4's Peter D'Oench that 22-year-old Maria Pereira is charged with third degree grand theft for "uttering a worthless check with intent to defraud."
"She passed the $1500 worthless check at a Citibank branch at 396 Alhambra Circle on November 8th," said Baixauli. "And that was just after she bonded out of jail on the previous charge, since she was arrested for that on November 5th. She apparently didn't wait too long."
Pereira is now in even more trouble because a check of Miami-Dade records shows that she is being held without bond, pending a check of her immigration status and whether she is in this country legally. She is married but sources say she her husband lives in a separate residence.
When Pereira was first arrested on November 5th, she was emotional but stayed silent as she was walked out of the Coral Gables Police Department and taken to the Miami-Dade jail.
Police say she confessed to stealing a man's identity seven months ago to pay for her own elective surgery.
Detective Baixauli said Pereira went online and applied for financing using the victim's information. Once she got the approval, she allegedly sent it to two separate doctor's offices. She is accused of paying for $8,000 worth of surgery with the stolen identity.
Police do not believe that she and that victim knew each other.
Police say the two doctors who performed the surgeries will lose the money they were paid. Detectives don't know if those doctors will ever get that money back.
Pereira faces a sentence for that crime of up to five years behind bars and/or a fine of up to $5,000 if she is convicted.
"Now we're seeing identity theft where before it was used to purchase high-end luxury vehicles or maybe even to commit mortgage fraud, now we're seeing that some of these subjects are trying to finance their own vanity," Baixauli said on November 5th.
Baixauli added, "In other types of crimes, when you commit a crime like identity theft to steal a car or purchase a property, once you're caught, those items can be returned. These surgical procedures cannot be reversed."
