Former baseball star Lenny Dykstra sentenced to 3 years in prison March 5, 2012 -- Updated 2134 GMT (0534 HKT) Lenny Dykstra pleaded no contest to several charges in October Prosecutors say Dykstra, two friends fraudulently drove off with luxury cars from dealership Los Angeles (CNN) -- Former New York Mets star Lenny Dykstra was sentenced Monday to three years in prison after a California judge denied his motion to withdraw his plea. He pleaded no contest in October to three counts of grand theft auto and filing a false financial statement. Beginning in January 2011, Dykstra, and two co-defendants tried to lease various high-end automobiles from several area dealerships by providing fraudulent information and claiming credit through a phony business, prosecutors said. A criminal complaint contended that Dykstra and Robert Hymers, 27, his accountant, provided information from a man they claimed was a co-signer, but who had not authorized his name to be used. Leases were not approved at two dealerships, but the pair and Christopher Gavanis, 30, a friend of Dykstra's, drove off with three cars at one company by providing fraudulent information to a dealer, Deputy District Attorney Alex Karkanen said. Those three cars have since been returned, he said. Dykstra, 49, is a three-time Major League Baseball All-Star who led the New York Mets to a World Series championship. His stellar professional baseball career began in 1981, when the New York Mets drafted him out of high school. During his second year in the majors, the player nicknamed "Nails" for his tenacity hit a lead-off home run in Game 3 of the 1986 World Series at Boston's Fenway Park, after the Mets lost the first two games. That spark rallied the Mets to a seven-game series victory over the Boston Red Sox. CNN's Rosalina Nieves contributed to this report.