A Palm Beach County Sheriff’s deputy, who in December was named officer of the year for the Delray district, on Thursday pleaded guilty to federal fraud charges, admitting he used his access to law enforcement databases to propel an identity theft scheme.

Frantz Felisma, 42, pleaded guilty to charges of credit card and identity theft fraud. Held without bond since he was arrested in December, Felisma faces a mandatory two-year prison term for identity theft and an additional 2½-year term for the other charge when he is sentenced on June 7. He also agreed to pay about $135,000 in restitution to victims.

Felisma was ratted out by his partner in the $250,000 scheme, Kesner Joaseus, 47, of Wellington. After pleading guilty in July to charges in connection with identity theft and rental scams, Joaseus told Lantana police that Felisma helped him steal the identities of people who owned high-end cars, such as Jaguars, Mercedes and Bentleys.

But Felisma’s sentencing was nearly called off Thursday afternoon when Felisma told U.S. District Judge Donald Middlebrooks he didn’t know what Joaseus was going to do with the information that Felisma gave to him.

Middlebrooks then said he would not accept Felisma’s guilty plea unless he admitted wrongdoing. "I only want you to plead guilty if you believe you did something wrong," the judge said. "You’ve got to have knowingly done this for me to accept a guilty plea."

The judge accepted Felisma’s guilty plea only after he finally said, "I believe I did something wrong when I gave him this information."

In a statement, the Sheriff’s Office said it holds its employees to "the highest standard" and is mindful of its obligation to the public. "Unfortunately sometimes an employee makes a bad decision which leads to misconduct," it wrote. "This misconduct was reported, investigated and subsequently determined to be criminal in nature, resulting in federal charges."

While Felisma has been on unpaid leave, his current status wasn’t immediately available.

In the scheme, Felisma used his access to law enforcement databases to run the license tags of high-end cars to get personal information about the owners, federal prosecutors said. Joaseus then used the information to get credit cards in those people’s names.

Lantana police found that 50 of the tags Felisma ran from January 2013 to June 2014 matched records Joaseus kept, listing the names of those he defrauded.

Police began investigating Joaseus in another case when people complained they paid him money to rent homes only to learn he didn’t own them. Joaseus, who was living in an 8,000-square-foot home in Wellington’s Versailles community, is to be sentenced in connection with both schemes next week.