Local News in Brief : Mobile-Home Dealer Gets Jail in Loan Fraud

A federal judge sentenced a former San Fernando Valley mobile-home dealer Monday to two years in prison and ordered him to pay $160,567 in restitution for bilking Great Western Savings & Loan by filing false loan applications in 1981.

William Joseph Sere, 47, formerly of Chatsworth, pleaded guilty Jan. 12 to three counts of making false loan applications, U. S. Atty. David A. Katz said.

Katz said that Sere, as a salesman and then as owner of Gene’s Mobile Homes, originally of Van Nuys and later of Canyon Country, filled out loan applications purporting to be for customers who had purchased mobile homes, which were offered as collateral. He then submitted the applications to Great Western’s office in Northridge, Katz said.

However, the borrowers either were paid by Sere or duped into letting him use their names, Katz said. He said Sere kept about $300,000 in loan proceeds and sold the mobile homes to others, Katz said.

He used some of the money to make regular payments until a bookkeeping error exposed the scheme, Katz said. Eventually, Great Western recovered $140,000 by selling Sere’s house. In 1983, Great Western obtained a $627,000 civil judgment against Sere in Los Angeles Superior Court, including punitive damages and legal fees

Sere fled and lived in Louisiana and Texas from 1982 to 1986, when he was arrested by the FBI.

Sere, still free on $100,000 bail, was ordered to report to federal prison May 4. Katz said Sere also is facing a grand theft charge in Louisiana involving mobile-home sales.