Home-repair fraud in Mississippi now carries a tougher penalty, a state official said here Tuesday.

Where a first offense in which a contractor defrauded a homeowner of $110,000 was a misdemeanor, effective March 13 a prison sentence became possible, said Grant Hedgepeth, director of the Consumer Protection Divisions of the Mississippi Attorney General’s Office.

Hedgepeth spoke at the Vicksburg Kiwanis Club, following Assistant U.S. Attorney John Dowdy who addressed the group last week about criminality in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Hedgepeth said the penalty was revised by lawmakers this year and made effective when signed by the governor. It gives prosecutors a better negotiating position on behalf of the public, he said.

&#8220Do you want to pay her back” or face going to jail? Hedgepeth said prosecutors can now ask in fraud cases.

Hedgepeth said reports to his office jumped from an average of about 200 a day before the Aug. 29 hurricane to about 1,500 or so a day for a month or so following the storm. The No. 1 complaint was not fraud, but price-gouging, Hedgepeth said.

During the rebuilding now under way, the challenge will be to hold contractors accountable for their work.

Regarding gouging, Mississippi law allows businesses to set their own prices except during emergencies, when they must not significantly raise prices except to cover actual expenses they incur due to the emergency, Hedgepeth said.

Mississippi is one of few states in which price-gouging is a crime, Hedgepeth added. Here, it carries a maximum of five years in prison and return of profits obtained by price-gouging, he said.