Five-Year Prison Term For Central Pa. Man Who Defrauded Airplane Owners
By Tony Hanson
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A Lancaster County man was sentenced today to five years in prison for fraud involving repairs to small airplanes.
Prosecutors say the man cheated customers and endangered their lives although, fortunately, no victims in this case were injured.
And it was a case that pitted a father and son against each other.
The father, 55-year-old Jay Stout, was convicted along with his now-defunct company, Flying Tigers, of defrauding dozens of customers who paid for repairs and aircraft inspections that were not done, or not done properly.
Prosecutor Arlene Fisk told the court there is evidence the fraud extended even beyond the cases in which Stout was charged.
"The agent discovered evidence that an airplane owner who paid Jay Stout for new cylinders (but) when he went to get his new airplane, there were indeed old cylinders that had been spray-painted to look like new so the customer could be charged for new," Fisk notes.
Stout still maintains his innocence, and at sentencing blamed his son, who had pleaded guilty earlier and testified against his father at trial.
