Laser Treatment Machine Swiping Duo Head To Newport Justice Center, OCDA Says

NEWPORT BEACH, CA — A south Orange County beauty shop beauty shop owner and employee arrested in an undercover sting operation are scheduled to be arraigned Tuesday on charges of using stolen laser machines they also weren't licensed to operate. They are scheduled to appear in the Harbor Justice Center in Newport Beach on Tuesday, Aug. 1.

The pair are charged with false representation of themselves as registered nurses and performing laser treatments with no doctor present at the Dana Point salon, an Orange County District Attorney's office spokesperson said.

Snezhana Semenov, 29, of Dana Point, the owner of New Way Beauty, and co- defendant Mathew Louis Finnes, 32, of Laguna Niguel, could face up to three years and eight months in prison if convicted of receiving stolen property and unauthorized practice of medicine, according to the Orange County District Attorney's Office.

Semenov's business offered a variety of laser hair removal and facial skin treatments, according to prosecutors, who said the two are accused of falsely telling customers they were registered nurses and performing laser treatments without working under a doctor or having a registered nurse present.

They used three laser machines worth $120,000 that were stolen from a San Juan Capistrano business on March 27, prosecutors allege.

In May, Semenov allegedly ordered parts for one of the machines, which allowed the manufacturer of the stolen equipment to track it to New Way Beauty through the serial number, prosecutors said.

Orange County sheriff's deputies, who were investigating the burglary, made appointments at New Way Beauty in an undercover sting in which Semenov allegedly diagnosed a detective with having a skin condition that required a laser treatment.

City News Service contributed to this report
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