A federal judge has sentenced a used car salesman to seven yearsin prison for defrauding $1.2 million from Navy Federal CreditUnion.

According to the complaint, Jady Brooks was working in RockyMount, N.C., when he recruited buyers to obtain loans from the $48billion credit union for cars that did not exist. He would thenshare some of the funds with the buyers. Even though the cars didnot exist, some of the buyers made payments to Navy Federal.

U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson ordered Brooks to paynearly $1.2 million back to the Vienna, Va.-based credit union.

Because of his past criminal record, Assistant U.S. AttorneyAlan M. Salsbury asked the judge to sentence Brooks to nine yearsin prison.

Brooks was previously convicted on possession of stolenproperty, grand larceny, assault, trespassing and maliciouswounding, according to Salsbury. In handing down the seven-yearprison sentence for his crime against Navy Federal, Jackson said Brooks never served more than 14months in prison for his previous convictions.

Brooks' attorney pleaded to Jackson for leniency asking for athree-year sentence. However, the judge rejected the pleas sayingBrooks committed the scam against Navy Federal over a two-year period and did not make anyattempts to stop the fraudulent behavior.