show promoter, dubbed a "grinch" by prosecutors for selling thousands of children tickets to a nonexistent Christmas pageant, is sentenced to more that seven years in prison Wednesday.

David Lee Ellisor was convicted in February of eight counts of mail fraud for a December 2003 scam where he sold $10 tickets to over 2,700 Miami-Dade County schoolchildren and parents for a "Christmas Around The World" show he claimed would be attended by ambassadors and feature live reindeer.

Upon learning there would be no show, hundreds of children were left crying outside the Coconut Grove Convention Center.

Evidence shows Ellisor emptied the show's bank account to purchase a Jaguar on the day the show was slated to begin.

The "Grinch" insists he was wrongly convicted and the show turned out badly for reasons beyond his control.

He is sentenced to 87 months in prison and has been ordered to pay over $38,000 in restitution.

Assistant US Attorney John C. Shipley says the severe sentence stems from evidence that Ellisor had pulled similar scams in Utah, California, Missouri, Colorado, and Arizona.