A Queens spa owner was thrown into prison today for posing as a plastic surgeon and severely injuring a woman during a booty-boost procedure.
“I’m a single mother who was running a business, I paid my taxes and I’m sorry for what I did,” said Barbara Nieto through a Spanish interpreter before she was sentenced to two years in prison for illegally performing liposuction and buttocks-lifting injections to Augusta Velez-Jimenez on March 20, 2010.
Velez-Jimenez was hospitalized after the procedure and needed surgery to avoid a life-threatening septic infection.
Nieto, 29, pled guilty to unauthorized practice of a profession and second-degree assault and agreed to pay $180,000 in restitution payments for all the victims — not named in the charges — she took advantage of, said District Attorney Richard Brown.
“I want to apologize for what I did … have mercy on me, this is my first offense,” said Nieto as her 8-year-old son cried in the courtroom.
Nieto was the owner of Perfect Image Stethics in Corona where she transferred fat from one area of the body to the buttock for hundreds of clients at more than $500 a pop.