GOLDEN - A former loan officer was sentenced to four years' probation Tuesday for his guilty plea to fraudulently obtaining home mortgage loans for people who lacked sufficient income or who were not U.S. citizens.

Jefferson County District Judge Jack Berryhill imposed a four-year prison sentence on Jose Alfredo Ramirez, 28, but suspended the sentence if he stays out of trouble and meets the conditions of his probation.

One of those conditions includes 400 hours of community service work for Habitat for Humanity or another agency that assists people with affordable housing.

Ramirez was one of six people indicted last year by a Jefferson County grand jury on charges that they defrauded the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development on more than $20 million in loans on 117 homes.

In addition to his sentence Tuesday, Ramirez has also been sentenced to five months in prison plus five months in a halfway house on a similar set of charges filed by federal prosecutors. He also has been ordered to pay $140,000 in restitution.

The amount of restitution he must pay in the Jefferson County cases has not been determined.

At his sentencing, Ramirez apologized for his actions.

"I have great remorse," he told Berryhill. "I'm trying to put this behind me."

Source: Rocky Mountain News