BENTON — A 75-year-old Kinmundy man has been sentenced to more than 6-years in federal prison for bank fraud.

Alfred L. Cross was sentenced to 6-1/2 years in prison after he was convicted earlier this year on five counts of bank fraud.

According to Southern Illinois District US Attorney Steven Weinhoeft, evidence presented in court showed that Cross defrauded seven southern Illinois banks out of more than $500,000.

The case charged that Cross opened checking accounts at Community First Bank of the Heartland in Mt. Vernon, the Farmers and Merchants National Bank in Nashville, First Southern Bank in Carbondale, State Bank of Whittington in Benton, Bradford National Bank in Greenville, and Midland States Bank and at Washington Savings Bank, both in Effingham.

After the accounts had been open for a short period of time, Cross deposited into each of the accounts very large checks, ranging from $18,875 to $148,000. Those checks were drawn on out-of-state bank accounts in the names of businesses that Cross controlled.

Court records say that at the time he deposited those checks, Cross knew there were insufficient funds in the out-of-state accounts to cover the checks. Before the checks could be returned for non-sufficient funds, however, he withdrew almost all of the funds he had deposited. Cross gave some of the money to his relatives and used the remainder to pay for personal expenses.

Officials say Cross conducted his fraud scheme from April 14, 2011 through March 25, 2015.

At sentencing Cross asked the court to impose a lenient sentence due to his advanced age and medical conditions.

The Court indicated that other factors warranted a sentence of significant prison time. Noting that Cross had 16 prior convictions, many of which were for similar conduct, the Court was “not confident he can be deterred” from future criminal conduct.