A Mill Spring couple was given prison sentences in federal court Thursday, April 24 for collecting more than $3.5 million in fraudulent tax refunds.

Senita Birt Dill, 46 was sentenced to 27 years in prison, according to a release sent Friday, April 25 from Anne M. Tompkins, U.S. attorney for the Western District of North Carolina.

Ronald Jeremy Knowles, 42, was sentenced to five years and 10 months in prison, according to the release. U.S. District Judge Martin Reidinger also ordered the couple to serve three years under court supervision and to pay $3,978,211 in restitution to the Internal Revenue Service, according to reports.

Dill was referred to as the mastermind of the fraud so received the longer sentence with prosecutors saying Knowles deserved a lesser sentence for his assistance in the prosecution of Dill.

Dill and Knowles pled guilty on Oct. 29, 2012 in the U.S. District Court in Asheville for participating in a tax fraud scheme from 2009 to 2012.

See full details in Monday’s edition of the Tryon Daily Bulletin.