A US court on Wednesday sentenced a man to more than a decade in prison for having lied about his son being a victim of the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001.

Fifty-four-year old Cyril Kendall, who was given a sentence of 11 to 33 years in prison, lied to get $160,000 in charity funds.

Prosecutors said the father of 12 made up a 13th child so he could steal relief money from the American Red Cross and Safe Horizons.

He was convicted of grand larceny and offering a false instrument for claiming his imaginary 29-year-old son, Wilfred Kendall, had been in the WTC on September 11 and was killed when the towers collapsed.

Kendall said he used $95,000 for family grief counselling and the remainder on related expenditures, including a memorial service.