Man Sentenced in Credit Repair Fraud

The operator of a Reseda-based firm was given the choice Tuesday of spending 120 days in jail or as many days on a Caltrans work crew after being convicted in connection with a scheme to charge for credit-repair services he failed to carry out, the Los Angeles city attorney’s office said.

Los Angeles Municipal Judge Suzanne Person imposed the sentence on Eric Dean Phillips, 37, of Sherman Oaks after he pleaded no contest to one count each of unlawfully receiving money prior to the performance of credit services and failing to pay city business taxes. His choice was not known.

Person also ordered Phillips to pay $5,000 in investigative costs to the California Department of Justice and placed him on three years summary probation. The amount of restitution Phillips will be ordered to pay his victims will be determined at a March 30 hearing.

The California attorney general’s office launched an investigation of Phillips’ firm, Data Mortgage Services, after an executive of Equifax Credit Information Service, a credit reporting bureau, received anonymous information that Data Mortgage Services had used phony tax liens and court stipulations to remove derogatory information from credit reports.

State investigators and Internal Revenue Service agents conducted a search of the company’s offices in November and discovered fraudulent and forged documents in the files of many clients, the city attorney’s office said. prosecutors said.