ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (KRQE) – An Albuquerque dentist charged with felony medical insurance fraud and practicing on patients without a license is claiming he’s innocent. Now, he says he wants his chance to tell his side of the story.

“We have strong defenses. He’s got strong arguments to make. He was never allowed to make those arguments because he wasn’t given the required notice under state law,” says Attorney Jason Bowles.

Back in September, the Office of the Superintendent charged Dr. William Gardner for practicing without a license and sending bills to insurance companies for procedures he had done, to collect that money.

Investigators say Gardner wasn’t licensed between May and August 2018 but continued to practice out of his office near Paseo and Wyoming.

“We filed a motion to dismiss this indictment on a technical, albeit, very important procedural ground,” says Attorney Robert Gorence.

Gardner’s attorneys filed the motion on Friday claiming he never got proper notice of any investigation. On top of that, they say the notice from investigators made no sense.

“This target which was sent was never delivered, said it was sent to a public defender that he didn’t have. Although the grand jury was going to be convening on September 12, and the date of the letter was August 16, he was supposed to respond in April,” says Gorence.

His attorneys say he would’ve had a good amount of evidence to prove his innocence had he had time to respond.

“Enormous amounts of evidence that he never made a false claim. He obviously never got a penny and that’s conceded by the state,” says Gorence.

Last month, the state’s Regulation and Licensing Department revoked his license, forcing him to turn it in by the new year. His attorneys did not have much to say about that.

“We do not represent him in that proceeding. He’s represented by other counsel, but we will say, we are not privy to those proceedings and what went on in those proceedings. They are completely separate from the criminal proceedings,” says Bowles.

Gardner is still practicing until he has to surrender his license and plans to appeal the state’s decision to revoke it. Gardner also has to pay more than $4,000 in fines and is expected to go to trial for this case next December.

Investigators say Gardner collected more than $50,000 in false insurance claims.