GULFPORT -- A contractor who bilked Coast residents of more than $1.3 million via home-repair fraud after Hurricane Katrina will serve six years and 10 months in a federal prison.
U.S. District Judge Sul Ozerden sentenced Ricky Douglas Deveny on Thursday and ordered restitution of $1,318,251.47 to a total of 11 victims.
Deveny, 52, was doing business as Sandstone Construction in South Mississippi after Katrina. He is from Estero, Fla., but worked in Slidell before he moved to Gulfport for post-hurricane construction work in Harrison and Hancock counties.
The federal government accused him of using false and misleading real-estate contracts to entice investors, and of collecting money for construction or repair jobs and failing to complete the work.
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