TRENTON – Acting Attorney General John J. Hoffman announced that a Burlington County man was sentenced to state prison today for stealing more than $925,000 by fraudulently obtaining six home equity loans on a single property within a period of 11 days.
Alfred Dennis, 51, of Westampton, was sentenced to three years in state prison by Superior Court Judge Philip E. Haines in Burlington County. Dennis pleaded guilty on May 12 to second-degree theft by deception. He was ordered to pay $940,339 in restitution to the banks that were defrauded. His wife, Carla, 51, pleaded guilty to third-degree theft by deception for assisting in the fraud. She was sentenced on July 11 to five years of probation, conditioned upon her serving 364 days in the county jail at the end of her probationary term. She also was ordered to pay $940,339 in restitution. She can potentially avoid the jail term by fulfilling all of the other conditions of her probation.
The state’s investigation revealed that Alfred and Carla Dennis obtained six home equity loans totaling more than $925,000 within 11 days using a single house in Willingboro as collateral for all of the loans. Alfred Dennis initiated the scheme because he was struggling with debt. However, because he had bad credit, they used a property held in the name of Carla and the loans were obtained in her name. In applying for the loans, the couple purposefully failed to disclose the existence of any of the other loans to the banks. They made only a few payments on the loans, and the banks eventually wrote off most of each loan as a loss. The six banks that provided loans are Citizens Bank, Cornerstone Bank, PNC Bank, Susquehanna Bank, Beneficial Bank, and Sun Bank.
Deputy Attorneys General Mark Kurzawa and John Nicodemo prosecuted the case for the Division of Criminal Justice Financial & Computer Crimes Bureau. Deputy Attorney General Nicodemo handled today’s sentencing hearing.
Detective Kimberly Allen and retired Sgt. Robert Walker conducted the investigation for the Division of Criminal Justice. Acting Attorney General Hoffman thanked the FBI for their valuable assistance in the investigation. Special agents of the FBI Newark Division assisted in the investigation, under the direction of Special Agent in Charge Aaron T. Ford. #### |