MAN SENTENCED FOR BANK FRAUD

SIKESTON -- A Sikeston man has been sentenced to five months in prison for defrauding Union Planters Bank of Southeast Missouri.

Jeffrey L. Young, 39, was sentenced Monday by U.S. District Judge Rodney W. Sippel. He also was sentenced to five months home detention and fined $5,000 on the single felony count of executing a scheme to defraud.

Young admitted he was the authorizing signator on certain bank accounts held in the name of Health Systems of Festus Inc. One of the accounts was at Union Planters Bank of Southeast Missouri in Sikeston, with another at Eagle Bank and Trust of Jefferson County in Crystal City. He was employed by Union Planters as vice president and commercial loan officer.

The U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Missouri said Young began a check-kiting scheme when Health Systems of Festus began having cash-flow problems. He began to write checks drawn on the account at Union Planters Bank knowing it did not contain sufficient funds, the attorney said. He then would deposit the checks into the account at Eagle Bank and Trust, he said, and then would write checks drawn on corporate accounts at Eagle Bank and Trust knowing they did not contain sufficient funds and would deposit the checks in the Union Planters Bank in Sikeston.