PAXTON — A Hoopeston man was sentenced to four years in prison Monday for stealing $3,000 from a Paxton bank through a fraudulent ATM transaction.

Thirty-year-old Richard J. Gonzalez was convicted by a Ford County jury on April 11 of one count of felony theft.  Gonzalez was charged with theft in October 2011 in connection with using an ATM to make a fraudulent bank transaction with the Farmers-Merchants National Bank in Paxton, according to state’s attorney Matt Fitton.

Fitton said Gonzalez opened an account at the bank, and shortly after he had received an ATM card, he used an ATM to have his account credited with a $3,000 deposit. However, the money was never received by the bank, and by the time the bank noticed the money was not deposited, Gonzales had used an ATM to withdraw the funds from his account, Fitton said.

Due to Gonzalez's criminal history, which included a prison term for mob action in Will County, he had faced up to six years in prison under extended-term sentencing guidelines.

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