Missouri Contractor Sentenced to Prison for Tornado Repair Fraud

A southwest Missouri contractor is going to prison for stealing more than $73,000 from an elderly Joplin couple who hired him to repair their home after the May 2011 tornado.

The U.S. Attorney’s office says 59-year-old Terry Alton Parker, of Nixa, was sentenced to five years and eight months in federal prison without parole. He was also ordered to pay about $34,000 in restitution, in addition to the $39,000 he had already repaid.

Parker pleaded guilty last year to fraud and money laundering.

The couple, in their 80′s, paid Parker about $80,000 for his contracting work. But he also forged a $39,000 check to himself on a check he stole from the couple, and siphoned funds from their bank account to his own PayPal account.