Two North Carolina tax preparers have been sentenced to prison and ordered to repay the United States about $5.2 million in restitution.
Betty Hawkins, 51, received a term of two years in prison while Phyllis Ricks, 63, was sentenced to three years after pleading guilty in September. The two were conspiring with others to file more than 1,000 false tax returns for clients of the tax return business from 2009 through 2008.
They used a variety of techniques to boost client refunds including fictitious federal income tax withholding figures.
Bob Scott has provided information to the tax and accounting community since 1991, first as technology editor of Accounting Today, and from 1997 through 2009 as editor of its sister publication, Accounting Technology. He is known throughout the industry for his depth of knowledge and for his high journalistic standards. Scott has made frequent appearances as a speaker, moderator and panelist and events serving tax and accounting professionals. He has a strong background in computer journalism as an editor with two former trade publications, Computer+Software News and MIS Week and spent several years with weekly and daily newspapers in Morris County New Jersey prior to that. A graduate of Indiana University with a degree in journalism, Bob is a native of Madison, Ind