SYRACUSE, NY -- Five people accused of bilking banks and homeowners in Central New York out of $1.1 million are facing a rarely used criminal charge.

Until this week, no one in Onondaga County had been charged with first- or second-degree residential mortgage fraud over the past five years, according to data from the state Division of Criminal Justice Services.

Across the state, only 31 people over that time were charged with either of those counts -- one in Westchester County and 30 in Suffolk County, according to DCJS.

In the Syracuse case, former Fabius real estate agent Theresa Sanders and four others were accused of second-degree residential mortgage fraud, along with scheme to defraud, grand larceny and falsifying business records.

They each face up to 20 years in prison if convicted as charged.

Sanders, 55, was arrested last week near her home in Westerville, Ohio, and is being held in the Onondaga County Justice Center jail.