The Tribune

By NICO SCAVELLA

Tribune Staff Reporter

nscavella@tribunemedia.net

A Jamaican teenager who goes by the nickname “Pumpkin” has been fined $3,000 for admitting to impersonating a local dentist over the last five months.

Jahvonie Montaque was fined $1,000 by Magistrate Kara Turnquest-Deveaux for practicing as and $1,000 for advertising as a dentist between October 28, 2018 and last Wednesday.

Montaque was fined an additional $1,000 for being in possession and/or control of various dental health appliances, equipment or supplies without the proper authority, which he used to practice dentistry or perform dental work, on March 13.

Failure to the pay the fines would result in six months in prison.

Montaque had previously denied the claims when initially arraigned on Monday. Yesterday however, he was re-arraigned and changed his pleas to guilty.

According to a brief summary of the facts read off by the prosecutor, Inspector Claudette McKenzie, Dr Sparkman Ferguson, the registrar general of the Bahamas Dentist Council, reported that on March 8, he received information from another dentist about an advertisement for various dental braces by a person who was not authorised to do so.

Dr Ferguson later received information that a Jamaican male was applying braces and offering dental services without being licenced. He also said there were a number of persons offering dental services on Facebook and said that was alarming because no person not registered as a dentist or dental provider in The Bahamas is allowed to advertise their services.

He said those persons, including the Jamaican male, are potentially putting the public at risk for diseases, infections and acid burns.

An investigation was subsequently launched that led to a number of witnesses being identified by police. Andrewnique Newton and Shanika Lyons had both received dental services from Montaque, whom they both found on Facebook after the saw an advertisement for “Brace Face”. They later contacted him in reference to his “dental services”.

Newton paid Montaque some $200 for two rows of dental braces, while Lyons said she paid the teenager $100 for him to change the dental elastic bands around each bracket inside her mouth. Statements were recorded from both women.

The police later executed a warrant at #7 West Bay Street that resulted in Montaque’s arrest. Dental equipment and a number of dental appliances and supplies were confiscated by the police.

Montaque was later interviewed under caution where he denied the allegations, denied ever working in the Bahamas, and refused to answer a number of questions put to him. However, he admitted to residing at #7 West Bay Street and further acknowledged that Bahamas immigration authorities previously stamped “employment prohibited” in his passport.

Earlier this month, 27-year-old Jamaica native Santini Camille Kerr-Wilson was fined a total of $6,500 by Magistrate Samuel McKinney for swindling five victims out of a collective $7,196 between February 26 and March 1 while operating under the pseudonym Dr Nicole Wilson.

Of that sum, $2,500 represents her fines for swindling the five women; $3,000 represents her fines for advertising and practicing as a dentist without proper authorisation; and $1,000 represents her fines for acquiring and possessing the $7,196, which in part represented the proceeds of her criminal conduct.

Failure to pay the $2,500 – $500 on each count of fraud - would result in three months in prison; failure to pay the $3,000 would result in six months in prison; while failure to pay the $1,000 would result in three months in prison.

Kerr-Wilson was also ordered to compensate each of the women the $510 which she swindled out of them.

Prior to receiving her sentences, the St Anne’s, Jamaica native admitted to defrauding the women, namely Marissa Coakley, Derricka Crossman, Ellyneice Nottage, Latesa Whymms and Marienise Augustin each of $510 in exchange for braces.

She also admitted to advertising and practicing as a dentist despite knowing full well that she was not authorised, qualified, nor registered to do so. She also admitted to fraudulently using the title orthodontist in the furtherance of her crimes.