Fake teen doctor, now 25, sentenced to U.S. prison for new scam

This booking photo provided by the Florida Department of Corrections shows Malachi Love-Robinson. (Florida Department of Corrections via AP)

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. — A serial grifter who gained national infamy as a teenager when he impersonated a doctor to defraud a patient is heading back to prison after pleading guilty to stealing more than US$10,000 from his employer.

Malachi Love-Robinson, 25, received a sentence of over two years and four months last week after pleading guilty in Palm Beach County, Florida, to grand theft and organized scheme to defraud.

Court documents show that in 2020, Robinson was working as a salesperson for a company that connects shippers with trucking companies. Instead of having customers make payments to the company, Love-Robinson would have them send the money to accounts he controlled.

Love-Robinson first came to national attention in 2016 as an 18-year-old when he was arrested after opening The New Birth New Life Medical Center, identifying himself as "Dr. Love."

He stole US$30,000 from a patient in her 80s during house calls and an additional $20,000 from a doctor. He was arrested after he examined and prescribed treatment to an undercover police officer who was impersonating a patient.

Later that year while out on bail, Love-Robinson was arrested in Virginia after he tried to buy a Jaguar automobile with a stolen credit card.

He pleaded guilty in both cases and was released from prison in 2019.