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.
