Fake nurse pleads guilty to fraud, assault after botched Botox injections

A Kamloops woman who told people she was a nurse and delivered Botox injections at parties pleaded guilty today to criminal charges laid after she botched some of the injections.

Jessica Noelle Earthy advertised herself as a nurse, but the only medical training she received was from a Lower Mainland doctor who hosted “Botox parties,” according to Crown prosecutor Ben Martin.

“She attended three or four of these Botox parties. This doctor later encouraged her to set up a business because it was not ‘rocket science,'” Martin told the court.

But it apparently wasn’t simple either. In the summer of 2022, four women paid hundreds of dollars for the injections that left them with lumps under their skin, mostly in their lips.

Earthy started her home-based business, Red Square Medical Aesthetics, in February 2022. It had no business licence, just as Earthy had no medical license to do the work.

By the time police started their investigation in August 2022, she closed her business because of negative attention on social media.

Records seized by police that August showed she had at least 21 patients before she closed the business and police focused on four victims who each had to see dermatologists to treat their botched lip and eyebrow injections.

One victim was a nurse herself, and they each believed Earthy was a nurse as she had advertised.

Earthy told them she worked part-time as a nurse practitioner while running the esthetics business, charging them all $375 for a package deal. Some got discounts or partial refunds after their appointments went badly.

There’s no indication the victims suffered long-term injuries from the injections.

Martin said Earthy had 50 hours of training specifically for the esthetics injections from the Lower Mainland doctor, who wasn’t named in the Sept. 29 hearing. Other than that, Earthy’s only health care-related work experience was a previous job as a care aide in Nunavut.

Despite this, she had certificates, name tags and business cards that advertised her as a nurse. The certificates, according to Martin, were supplied by the Lower Mainland doctor.

On Sept. 29, the court heard Earthy had no intentions to hurt anyone, but the poorly-performed operations ended with criminal charges of fraud and assault. She pleaded guilty to one count of each on Monday afternoon.

Her lawyer, Danielle Ching McNamee, said Earthy was awaiting two pre-sentence reports, including a psychiatric assessment. It’s not clear when they will be completed, but lawyers will return in January for an update.