Brandon Gunn, a former accounting technician in the Shelby County Chancery Court Clerk’s office was sentenced to four years in prison Friday, Feb. 3, on conspiracy, theft and money laundering charges he pleaded guilty to in 2011.

Gunn was also ordered to pay more than $1 million in restitution for the money taken from the clerk’s office starting in 2008.

Gunn took money from the sale of delinquent tax property sales that was due property owners once the overdue taxes were paid. He funneled the money with checks written to companies he created to hide the money.

The thefts were discovered in 2011 by an attorney representing a property owner due money from the property sale who also discovered Gunn’s name on the charter papers for one of the companies. Gunn resigned after he was confronted by then clerk Dewun Settle.

The resulting scandal led to Settle’s resignation and the appointment of a new clerk by the three Chancery Court judges.

After Friday’s sentencing by Memphis Federal Court Judge Hardy Mays, U.S. Attorney Ed Stanton described Gunn’s crimes as “a flagrant abuse of the public trust.”

“Time and time again, he used his position with the Shelby County Chancery Court to steal taxpayers dollars,” Stanton said in a written statement. “Public corruption at any level of government is intolerable and Brandon Gunn is properly being held accountable for his crimes.”