A New Brunswick mortgage and investment broker has been sentenced to three years in a federal prison for defrauding nine investors of nearly $600,000 and using fake names to get mortgages through Scotiabank.

William Priest pleaded guilty earlier this year to charges laid under the criminal code following an investigation by the New Brunswick Securities Commission.

Judge Julian Dickson called Priest a criminal, saying he had committed the ultimate betrayal.

Priest took retirement and life insurance money from his family and friends. He then invested the money in a fraud scheme that saw virtually none of it returned to the investors.

"I lost all my life savings, my husband was killed and he left me life insurance that is gone," said Susan Fox, one of nine victims. "Will took that, I sold my house, and that money is gone. I hoped to retire this year, now I don't know when I will be able to."

Fox was investing in properties and lost $145,000.

Bev Hawkes was another victim. She lost $130,000. She had gone to Priest to get a mortage and then invested a family inheritance.

"All of a sudden I just couldn't get the money," said Hawkes. "Every time I tracked him down, 'Well, my mother just had a heart attack,' then all of a sudden it was his mother-in-law that had the heart attack, it was just excuse after excuse."

The executive director of the New Brunswick Securities Commission said Priest was operating a Ponzi scheme.

"He was taking money he received from investors and using it to pay off other investors," said Rick Hancox.

The Securities Commission began investigating Priest last year after one of the victims filed a complaint.

In November 2011, the comission issued a cease trade order against Priest.

The RCMP commerical crime unit began investigating. This month Priest pleaded guility to nine counts of fraud involving nearly $600,000. He's now been sentenced to three years in jail.

According his lawyer, Priest is very remorseful, but when asked by the judge if he had anything to say prior to sentencing, Priest said nothing and did not apologize to the victims.