MIAMI – A career con man, who has spent much of his adult life behind bars for running scams from Miami to London, has been sentenced to five years in state prison, but not before orchestrating one final swindle.
Jimmy Sabatino was sentenced Wednesday in a Miami-Dade County courtroom for scamming hotels throughout South Florida, racking up thousands of dollars in bills that he never paid.
Not anymore.
A judge also ordered Sabatino to pay about $594,000 in restitution to the businesses he owes.
Local 10 News has learned Sabatino also found a way to have Miami-Dade County taxpayers foot the bill for surgery to repair a lazy eye he had since childhood while he was in jail. The cost of the operation was about $250,000.
The Miami-Dade County state attorney's office claimed the procedure was deemed medically necessary, even though Sabatino said it was cosmetic surgery.
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