Citing the steep cost of mortgage fraud on South Florida, a Fort Lauderdale federal judge sentenced a Jamaican man to eight years in prison this week for orchestrating a $12-million mortgage-fraud scheme in Broward County.

United States District Judge William Dimitrouleas said Anthony Dehaney, 57, led a plan that cost banks millions and his sentence should send a signal to others tempted to skirt the law "to make a quick, easy buck".

The sentence - among the toughest to date in a mortgage fraud case - exceeds a prosecutor's recommendation for a roughly five-year prison term.

Dehaney will likely be deported after completing his sentence, said prosecutor Jeffrey Kay.

The Jamaican national, who pleaded guilty in October to conspiracy, mail fraud and bankruptcy fraud, told Dimitrouleas he began investing in real estate in 2002. Mortgage professionals told him no one would check the details he included on loan applications, Dehaney said.

As part of his guilty plea, Dehaney admitted to lying on applications for mortgage loans for at least 20 Broward properties between January 2003 and August 2006, including a $1.4-million Coral Springs home and three properties on 26th Street in Wilton Manors.

Price escalation

"As real-estate prices escalated, things were moving so fast no one realised what they were doing," he said. "Everyone was trying to make money."

When the real-estate market hit the rocks, Dehaney filed forged bankruptcy petitions in the Broward federal court on behalf of three straw buyers to stall foreclosure proceedings.

Last month, Dehaney testified for three days at the trial of the Fort Lauderdale closing agent who facilitated many of his fraudulent mortgage applications.

The agent, Howard Gaines, 57, of Delray Beach was convicted December 2 of conspiracy and wire fraud charges. He is set to be sentenced by Dimitrouleas on February 10.