URBANA (Source: Herald & Review, Decatur, Ill) - A former Mattoon woman, Rebecca L. Shockley, has been ordered to serve 16 months in federal prison and pay restitution of more than $400,000 for defrauding a local bank and the Illinois Department of Revenue, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
Chief U.S. District Judge Michael P. McCuskey sentenced Shockley, 63, currently of Bradenton, Fla., on Wednesday. Shockley was ordered to report March 7 to the Federal Bureau of Prisons to begin serving her sentence.
According to court documents, Shockley was co-owner of Quality Truck and Auto in Mattoon, which did business as Cross Country RV Center. Shockley acted as bookkeeper for the business, which sold new and used recreational vehicles and related items.
On May 9, Shockley entered a plea of guilty to one count each of mail fraud and bank fraud. Shockley admitted that from March 2007 to December 2008, she pledged vehicles as collateral to the Charleston branch of First Neighbor Bank of Toledo and another lender, Textron Financial. Shockley had entered into the loan agreement, known as a floor plan line of credit, with the bank in mid-1999.
According to court documents, as the business’s financial condition deteriorated, Quality Truck and Auto was unable to pay off the secured loans it had received from First Neighbor Bank, and the bank learned that the RVs that were supposed to be collateral had already been sold and the sales proceeds forwarded to the other lender.
Shockley further admitted that from July 2006 to December 2008, she underreported the amounts subject to sales tax by $1.8 million. As a result, although Quality Truck and Auto collected $249,915 in sales taxes from more than 100 buyers, Shockley admitted that she remitted only $134,812 of the collected sales taxes to the state of Illinois and kept the remainder for herself.
In addition, Shockley admitted that she underreported the taxable retail sales of Quality Truck and Auto from 2006 to 2008.
Shockley was ordered to pay a total of $412,028 in restitution, consisting of $279,438 to First Neighbor Bank and $132,590 to the Illinois Department of Revenue.
The charges were investigated by the FBI and the Illinois Department of Revenue. The case was prosecuted by Assistant U.S. Attorney Eugene L. Miller.
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©2012 the Herald & Review (Decatur, Ill.)
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Source: Herald & Review, Decatur, Ill.
