Metro

Feds bust Sandy fraudsters

Now he’s singing the Sandy blues.

A former backup crooner for disco queen Gloria Gaynor was one of three fraudsters busted Tuesday for making bogus Hurricane Sandy relief claims and getting thousands of dollars in illegal aid.

The crooked trio was placed in handcuffs on the one-year anniversary of a disaster that washed out thousands of devastated New Yorkers.

“Mack and Soul” frontman and Motown cover specialist Joe McClam, 52, told Federal Emergency Management Agency officials that Sandy gutted his Sheepshead Bay apartment and was paid $32,000 to help to ease his burden, according to federal prosecutors.

But investigators later learned that McClam actually lived in North Carolina and that his property hadn’t been livable since a 2010 fire.

McClam’s Web site claims that he once toured with the famed ‘Drifters” – who were best known for their hit “Under the Boardwalk.”

“Desperation leads people to do stupid things in their lives,” said Brooklyn federal judge Lois Bloom at his arraignemnt yesterday before releasing McClam on $50,000 bond.

A pair of Long Islanders also used the disaster to line their own pockets, prosecutors said.

Jena Sowinski, 37, claimed that her Merrick home was damaged by the storm and was given $18,000 by FEMA to aid in her recovery.

But the property’s real owner later told investigators that she was a rental tenant and that there was minimal damage to the home from Sandy, prosecutors said.

Tselane Gibbs, 31, of Valley Stream, snatched nearly $19,000 in fraudulent FEMA money after she said she was forced to relocate from her damaged residence to a Brooklyn rental.  But a check of her story revealed that she never moved.

“A few rapacious individuals saw FEMA assistance as an opportunity for fraud,” said Brooklyn U.S. Attorney Loretta Lynch. “The defendants charged today brazenly stole disaster relief funds, rubbing salt in the wounds of their neighbors and community.”