Long Island crime and courts briefs

OCEANSIDE

Ex-lawyer sentenced

for real estate swindle

A former Oceanside real estate attorney who admitted bilking $10,000 out of a couple he was representing in a new home purchase was sentenced yesterday to 200 hours of community service, prosecutors said.

Nathan Levner, 54, who in December 2012 was disbarred in connection with the case, pleaded guilty to third-degree grand larceny in November.

Nassau County Court Judge Tammy Robbins yesterday sentenced Levner to the community service, a $300 surcharge and a $25 fee. Levner already had paid $10,000 in restitution, the Nassau County district attorney's office said in a news release.

Levner's plea came more than two years after a couple hired him in July 2011 to represent them in the sale of their former home and the purchase of another one, District Attorney Kathleen Rice's office said.

After the couple closed the sale of the home they were vacating, they gave Levner $10,000 to be held in escrow until they had moved out, authorities said. But the money was not returned when the couple did so and Levner did not return phone calls, Rice's office said.

Levner was suspended from practicing law on June 1, 2012, after admitting he had used the couple's money for himself, authorities said.

ROOSEVELT

Home burglary suspect

frightened off by woman

Police are looking for a man they said burglarized a woman's Roosevelt home yesterday morning while she was home.

Nassau police said a 40-year-old woman was in an upstairs bedroom in the Oak Street home when she heard a noise. She opened the bedroom door and saw a man walking up the stairs of her home.

The woman screamed, and the man fled out the rear door of the house. Police said he did not take anything and there were no injuries.

Police described the suspect as 6 feet tall, with a thin build and wearing a black leather jacket, gloves, blue jeans and white sneakers.

Anyone with information can call Nassau County Crime Stoppers at 800-244-8477.NESCONSET

Man, wife get prison terms

for mortgage fraud

A Nesconset man was sentenced to 4 years in prison and his wife to 3 years for operating a multimillion-dollar mortgage fraud scheme involving more than 40 properties in Connecticut, federal authorities said.

Winston Shillingford, 56, and his wife, Marleen Shillingford, 47, of Nesconset, were sentenced Tuesday in Hartford, according to an FBI news release.

In October 2011, both pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering.

As part of the sentence, "the parties have agreed that victim financial institutions suffered losses of between $2.5 million and $7 million as a result of this scheme," the FBI said.

The agency said the Shillingfords operated with a real estate company called Waikele Properties Corp., with offices in Garden City and Bridgeport, Conn.

For about 10 years the couple, along with others, worked to obtain fraudulent mortgages to purchase multifamily homes in Bridgeport, authorities said.

After buying the properties, the couple would recruit people to purchase them.

When the loans were approved, the money would be wired into the Waikele Properties bank account and transferred to people who were part of the plot, authorities said. Many never inhabited the homes and subsequently defaulted on the loans, authorities said.