MARION CO., Ill. - More often than not, income tax crimes and theft of government funds on that level are generally handled by the feds, but when it's a case involving only state taxes - in the form of sales taxes - the state courts at the county level can get right in there and get involved.
And that's just what's happened in Marion County this week, to a car dealer in Centralia.
In a case that saw the prosecution handled by the Illinois Attorney General's Office (a la Barb Wingo and Terrie Eichorn at the Anna Bixby Women's Center in Harrisburg), Douglas Loy, 62, owner/operator of Doug Loy Auto Service Center in Centralia, was sentenced this week (Wednesday, January 23) in a case filed in early April 2018. Loy was charged with multiple counts involving Theft of Governmental Funds more than $10,000 but less than $100,000, and Failure to File an Illinois Income Tax Return.
In the charges, Loy was accused of failing to remit collected sales tax on auto part sales between February 20, 2013 and June 20, 2017; the failure to file taxes is of course self-explanatory.
There were originally other counts filed: Those of Failure to File Sales and Use Tax Returns and another Failure to File Income Tax; those were dismissed in exchange for the January 23 plea.
Because Loy entered into a plea agreement, he was given a sentence of four years Conditional Discharge, and was ordered to pay a total of $46,937 in fines and fees, with $46,370 of that being restitution. Published reports have Loy paying $15,000 toward that restitution on the day he was sentenced, but online records don't indicate that and instead show that he hasn't paid anything at all as of yet; instead, the fee schedule is shown to set to begin in September of this year.