A New Orleans woman has been sentenced to more than five years in jail for illegally obtaining Hurricane Katrina grant money along with a loan for a home she lost prior to the storm.

In June, a federal board of judges convicted Barbara Simmons Dowl of charges that included wire fraud as well as theft of government funds.

On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge Sarah Vance sentenced Dowl to 69 months in prison also ordered her to compensate $156,000 in restitution towards the state as well as federal governments.

Prosecutors say the city of New Orleans sold property that Dowl and her ex-husband owned but gone astray in the year 2004 due to unpaid taxes.

After the August 2005 hurricane, Dowl obtained a Small Business Administration disaster loan as well as a federally subsidized proprietor grant for the property even though she no longer lived there.