Queens ex-pol jailed for travel-fee scam

ALBANY — Former Queens Assemblyman William Scarborough was sentenced Monday to 13 months in prison and two years of probation for submitting more than $54,000 in bogus travel reimbursements for days he didn’t travel to Albany on legislative business.

Hours later, he was also sentenced in state court for spending more than $35,000 in campaign contributions on himself.

“I have been motivated to serve my community. It is with profound stupidity . . . I have shamed my family, I let my community down, I have given up my job as opposed to serving my community,” Scarborough said at his federal sentencing.

Albany federal Judge Thomas McAvoy recom mended that Scarborough, 69, be housed in a federal prison as close as possible to his Queens home.

Scarborough avoided state prison with the 13month federal sentence that runs concurrently with his state term, beginning Nov. 10.

He also must pay $54,355 in restitution and turn over about $2,000 that remains in his campaign war chest to the Brooklyn chapter of the NAACP.

The Post was the first to reveal Scarborough’s shady practices, having caught him at a townhall meeting in Jamaica, Queens, on March 17, 2011, when he was claiming a $165 “per diem” expense payment for being in Albany that same day.

“I don’t think I have to give you proof,” the Democrat sniped in 2012.

When federal agents raided his office and home in March 2014, he blamed The Post for triggering the criminal investigation.

US Attorney Richard S. Hartunian said Scarborough submitted 174 false vouchers for reimbursement between 2009 and 2012.

“It’s obvious you represented your constituents well in 20 years with the New York State Assembly but you also betrayed those constituents,” said Supreme Court Judge Stephen Herrick at Scarborough’s state sentencing.

Scarborough joins a rogues’ gallery of New York politicians convicted of abusing their power.

In July, disgraced state Sen. Malcolm Smith was sentenced to seven years in prison for trying to bribe his way into Gracie Mansion.

In 2013, former Sen. Shirley Huntley received one year in prison for stealing $88,000 from a charity she controlled.

It is with profoun nd stupidity . . . I have shamed my family, I let my community down n, I have given up my jobb as opposed to serving my community.

Ex-Assemblyman William Scarborough