HAMILTON — A pair of business partners have been sentenced in a mobile-home sales scheme that hit Butler, Montgomery and Greene counties from 1996-99.

        Butler County Common Pleas Judge Keith Spaeth on Thursday sentenced David F. Parenti, 51, to two years in prison. His partner, Paula Cassady, 49, will be on probation for five years.

        Mr. Parenti operated Mortgage Merchants from his home in Kettering, Ohio, a Dayton suburb.

        “Mortgage Merchants was an elaborate scheme to buy and sell mobile homes by falsifying titles as a cover to avoid paying taxes,” a news release from the Ohio Attorney General's Office said. “Those who thought they were buying the homes paid sales tax on their purchase, but Parenti and Cassady kept the money. Many of the homeowners were evicted when they missed the large payments.”

        The Attorney General's Office, the Ohio Department of Taxation, the Butler County Sheriff's Office and the Butler County Auditor's office had investigated the couple.

        The Butler County Prosecutor's Office then pro ceeded with charges.

        Mr. Parenti pleaded guilty last month to multiple counts of tampering with records and failing to file and remit taxes.

        Ms. Cassady pleaded no contest to multiple counts of tampering with records and complicity to tampering with records.

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