Tiffany Denyse Young — Orthodontic Specialists, Bradenton, Florida

Tiffany Denyse Young, 54, of St. Petersburg, a former dental office manager in Manatee County, Florida, was sentenced to 15 years in state prison followed by 15 years of probation after prosecutors said she stole tens of thousands of dollars from two dental offices and their patients.

Young pleaded no contest in May 2025 to nearly 20 fraud-related charges. Prosecutors said she began working at an unnamed Manatee County dental practice in December 2020, where investigators found she altered checks, wrote worthless checks, and used her employer’s U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration number to prescribe herself codeine. In July 2022, she was hired by Orthodontic Specialists off Ninth Avenue West in Bradenton, where detectives said the fraud continued.

By the time the scheme was discovered in February 2023, investigators had found $6,700 in cash missing and nearly $8,000 in altered checks deposited into Young’s accounts. According to an arrest report, Young persuaded patients to leave the “Pay to” line on their checks blank and then wrote in her own name before depositing them — in one case changing a $300 check to $3,000. Investigators said she also issued fraudulent refunds from the office’s credit card machine to her own Mastercard and manipulated the practice’s accounting software to cover her tracks.

Young had a prior record of similar crimes in Pinellas County — fraud, credit card crimes, stolen property, and worthless checks — and had previously served prison time. In 2022 she pleaded guilty in a St. Petersburg fraud case involving a lawncare company. Assistant State Attorney Justin Foster said Young obtained the dental jobs by providing an altered middle name and Social Security number, and urged employers to thoroughly vet anyone who will handle finances. Circuit Judge Stephen Mathew Whyte imposed the 15-year prison term, the maximum allowed for her most serious offense, which carries a three-year mandatory minimum.

Investigators estimated the losses at upwards of $20,000 from the two dental offices, comprising missing cash, altered checks, and fraudulent card refunds.

Charges

Young entered a no-contest plea on May 2, 2025 in Manatee County case numbers 2023CF001208AX and 2023CF001462AX to:

• 2 counts of Scheme to Defraud (less than $20,000)
• 2 counts of Fraudulent Use of Personal Identification Information (victim over 60 years of age)
• 1 count of Fraudulent Use of Personal Identification Information (10 or more victims — carrying a 3-year mandatory minimum)
• 5 additional counts of Fraudulent Use of Personal Identification Information
• 1 count of Obtaining Codeine by Fraud
• 1 count of Worthless Check/Debit Card ($150 or more)
• 7 counts of Uttering Counterfeit Instruments

The State Attorney’s Office noted that many of the defrauded patients were senior citizens, and that Young also altered patients’ credit and debit card payments to smaller amounts and pocketed the difference. The crimes spanned December 22, 2020 through July 1, 2022 at the first practice and July 19, 2022 through February 28, 2023 at Orthodontic Specialists; the cases were investigated by Detectives Randall Walker and Gary Cummings III of the Manatee County Sheriff’s Office. Sentencing was imposed September 3, 2025.

Source

Manatee dental office manager stole thousands from patients, prosecutors say — Bradenton Herald (Michael Moore Jr.), September 12, 2025

Press release: Tiffany Denyse Young — Office of the State Attorney, 12th Judicial Circuit of Florida, September 8, 2025

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