A Highlands Ranch man will spend the next seven years behind bars for misleading investors in a vending machine scam.

Gary Luckner, 41, was also ordered to repay $4.5 million he stole from more than 400 customers between 2007 and 2009. His business partner, Richard Black, 52, of Arcadia, Calif., was sentenced to more than eight years in prison and must pay $5 million in restitution for the fraudulent scheme.

According to prosecutors with the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Luckner and Black arranged telemarketing sales rooms to sell business opportunities for vending machines that dispensed caffeinated energy shots. For about $10,000, the investors were promised high-traffic locations and steady profits, but most never received any money and lost their investment.

The largest of the telemarketing sales rooms involved — and the one that made the most sales — was American Vending Systems in Centennial. Louis Gubitosa, 63, of Littleton, the president of American Vending, was sentenced earlier this year to 18 months in prison.

Black and Luckner pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit mail fraud and were sentenced in a federal courtroom in Denver March 15. Three other defendants were also convicted as part of the same scheme and received lighter sentences.

Black and Luckner acknowledged in their plea agreements that sales representatives lied about projected profits from the business, the quality of locations that were available for the vending machines and the level of customer service that purchasers would receive.

Black and Luckner also used phony references to persuade the victims to buy. Black himself was one such reference, and using an alias, falsely told potential buyers that he was an American Vending customer who operated a financially profitable vending route, according to the U.S Department of Justice.

“Like so many Americans struggling to make ends meet, these folks were trying to supplement modest incomes by investing in themselves and starting their own businesses,” said Tony West, assistant attorney general of the justice department’s civil division. “Instead of taking a step up the financial ladder, their losses now put them in a financial hole because these defendants lied to them.”

In a statement, U.S. Attorney for the District of Colorado John Walsh underscored the need to prosecute those who target smaller investors and said the victims are “more than just names on a piece of paper.”

It is unclear where the defendants will serve their prison terms.