The former president of an Ellicott City mortgage company pleaded guilty Thursday to stealing more than $100,000, money he took from a homeowner immediately after helping her with a cash-out refinancing.

David Yong Park, 43, was sentenced to five years in jail with all but 18 months suspended, the Maryland Attorney General's office said. Baltimore County Circuit Court Judge John J. Nagle III also ordered him to repay the victim's $116,556.

In 2007, when Park was working for Big Lending Inc. and was president of Capital City Financial Group Inc., both in Ellicott City, he helped a homeowner refinance with a larger mortgage in order to turn her home equity into cash. She planned to use the money to buy a commercial condo for her business, the attorney general said. But right after settlement, Park took the money from the title company and spent it within two weeks on himself and his business.

Paul A. Capriolo, an attorney who represented Park, said his client "made no excuses for what he did."

"It's absolutely his intention to see that that gets repaid," Capriolo added.

Big Lending is a licensed mortgage company, but neither Capital City Financial Group nor Park were licensed to work in the business, according to the state Department of Labor, Licensing and Regulation. Park started the firm less than a year and a half before the theft.