Bagel-loving, ex-pol Larry Seabrook got lightly toasted today by a judge who cut him a break for a brazen fraud scheme involving more than $1 million in taxpayer money.
Manhattan federal Judge Deborah Batts ordered the Bronx Democrat to serve five years in the slammer, rejecting recommendations from the feds that Seabrook get locked up for at least seven-plus years.
Batts said Seabrook — who got booted from the City Council after his conviction last year — deserved “some consideration” for his history of public service, which also includes stints in the state Assembly and Senate.
She also declined to slap Seabrook with a fine, and ordered him to pay a little more than $619,000 in restitution to the city for funneling public funds to shady non-profits that employed his then-mistress, family members and friends.
The feds had sought to hold Seabrook accountable for more than $1.1 million, which they said represented a “conservative analysis” of what he scammed.
A jury found Seabrook guilty on nine counts of conspiracy and fraud for three separate schemes to loot council “slush” funds and programs to boost minority employment and diversity in the city Fire Department.
But he beat the rap for a fourth alleged scam that included allegations that he doctored a receipt to get reimbursed $177 from his political club for a bagel sandwich and Diet Snapple.
Seabrook, 61, delivered a somewhat rambling statement in which he said “I gave my all” to the people of The Bronx, and insisted he didn’t take part in the forgeries and thefts committed by some employees of the non-profits who got immunity to testify against him.
“I know that I came as a proud man, that I stand up in my beliefs, and I will take on whatever it is that the judge of this court metes out to me,” Seabrook said.
Seabrook also said he “will continue to fight and do what has to be done” to serve the public.
READ SEABROOK’S FULL STATEMENT
Defense lawyer Anthony Ricco urged a no-jail sentence, saying the feds had “belittled” Seabrook’s “extraordinary commitment to his community.”
Ricco said Seabrook wasn’t motivated by “evil and malicious intent and purpose,” but conceded that he excercised “poor judgment,” especially in the hiring of then-mistress Gloria Jones-Grant to head the non-profits.
“Take her out of the picture, and I don’t think we’re standing here today,” he said.
Ricco also cited a “touching” and “moving” letter from Seabrook’s long-suffering wife, Maria Diaz, in which she begged to keep him out of prison so their son Lawrence, 14, won’t go astray.
Manhattan US Attorney Preet Bharara blasted Seabrook as “a flagrant and serial abuser of City Council discretionary funds” who “sacrificed the public trust on the altar of greed.”
“Today’s sentence finally vindicates the interests of the constituents whose trust he so casually violated by his fraud,” Bharara said.
City Department of Investigations Commissioner Rose Gill Hearn said Seabrook’s sentence “punctuates a powerful message that abusing government power to steal has serious consequences.”
Seabrook, who has until March 8 to report to prison, declined to comment after leaving the courthouse, but defense lawyer Ed Wilford said Seabrook planned to appeal his conviction.
bruce.golding@nypost.com