SAN DIEGO -- A South Bay man who posed as an immigration official, telling people he could quickly process their citizenship papers for a fee, was sentenced Friday to five years in state prison.

Davyd George Jimenez, 37, pleaded guilty at an earlier hearing to seven counts of grand theft and theft by false pretenses.

Jimenez admitted taking more than $40,000 from legal residents -- charging $800 to $1,500 each -- to process paperwork, then kept the money, said Deputy District Attorney Hector Jimenez, who is not related to the defendant.

The prosecutor said the defendant targeted entire families in his scam.

The defendant duped his victims by displaying fake federal agency badges, phony Department of Homeland Security identification and bogus DHS business cards, forms and stamps, authorities said.

They said the defendant would meet victims at their homes or at restaurants, show them his bogus government identification, help them fill out phony documents and take their money.

Sentencing was carried out by South Bay Judge H. Ronald Domnitz.