Convicted bookkeeper gets another year in prison after fake breast cancer claim in Tennessee

FROM KNOWNEWS.COM -

A thieving church bookkeeper who faked breast cancer to avoid reporting to prison has netted more time behind bars for her trickery.
U.S. District Judge Thomas Phillips sentenced Angela Elwood, 48, to another year in a federal prison for her conviction on a charge of obstruction of justice for presenting fake medical records claiming she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and needed treatment.
Elwood served as a bookkeeper for the Jefferson City Christian Church when, in January 2004, she began stealing from the congregation, diverting money from the church's bank accounts to pay her bills and forging signatures on checks to acquire cash. The theft spanned more than two years and totaled more than $218,000, according to court records.
She was eventually indicted on federal bank fraud charges. In March 2009, Phillips sentenced her to spend two years in federal prison. However, he allowed her to remain free while the U.S. Bureau of Prisons processed her paperwork and designated at which federal facility she would be placed.
Beginning in May 2009, Elwood began a scheme to avoid prison, court records state. First, she drafted fake medical records showing she was scheduled for a biopsy and needed to delay reporting to prison to get the results. Phillips agreed, court records state.
As her prison report date neared, she produced bogus medical reports stating she had been diagnosed with breast cancer and needed immediate treatment. Phillips again granted her a delay.
She kept up the ruse until January 2010 when the U.S. Probation Office notified Assistant U.S. Attorney Trey Hamilton that the University of Tennessee Medical Center had confirmed that her biopsy was negative for cancer. She was delivered to a federal prison in February 2010.
Elwood's attorney Bryan Delius had urged Phillips to grant Elwood probation in the obstruction case. He argued Hamilton waited until she finished her embezzlement prison term before bringing the obstruction charge. If he hadn't tarried, Delius argued, Elwood could have served the two prison terms