Real Estate Agent Convicted in Theft : Court: Van Nuys man was accused of taking money from a woman after claiming to represent a law firm.

A Van Nuys real estate man has been convicted of grand theft in a case in which he misrepresented himself as an agent of a law firm, prosecutors said Friday.

Michael D. Henschel, 46, pleaded no contest in Van Nuys Municipal Court to a misdemeanor grand theft charge, deputy City Atty. Dan Kleban said.

Henschel, who entered the plea Tuesday, was sentenced to perform 45 days of community service in graffiti removal. He also was ordered to pay $2,710 in fines and penalty assessments, along with $1,920 in restitution, and was placed on three years probation, Kleban said.

Neither Henschel nor his lawyer could be reached for comment.

Prosecutors accused Henschel of taking $1,920 from a young woman in 1993 after falsely claiming to represent a law office and promising to clear up her traffic warrants. Henschel did nothing for the victim, Wendy Jo Phillips, who eventually went to the police.

For Henschel, a law school graduate who was never admitted to the State Bar of California, the case was only the latest in a series of legal scrapes involving his tangled business affairs.

Last spring, he was fined and placed on probation after pleading no contest to a misdemeanor violation of the state labor code.

On Aug. 1, he was acquitted in Los Angeles Superior Court of a felony charge of grand theft stemming from a real estate deal gone sour.

But a week later, Henschel was arrested by U.S. marshals and held for several hours until he paid more than $9,300 in overdue sanctions stemming from his involvement in a bitterly contested bankruptcy case.

He is also the subject of a federal criminal investigation involving complaints of bank and bankruptcy fraud.