A Monroe County tobacco farmer who admitted filing fraudulent crop insurance claims was ordered Tuesday to serve eight months in prison.

Tracy Dillard, 46, of Fountain Run, was sentenced in U.S. District Court for making false statements and reports on an insurance application.

Dillard was charged in April with overstating damage to his tobacco crops in four Kentucky counties and one Tennessee county in paperwork submitted from 2009 to 2011 to Producers Agriculture Insurance Co., which insured his crops.

The company is insured by the Federal Crop Insurance Corp., which compensates farmers for crops lost to disaster or other circumstances.

Dillard filed the bulk of his false insurance claims on crops in Allen, Barren, Hart and Monroe counties, according to U.S. District Court records.

Much of the illegal activity occurred in 2010, when Dillard filed false insurance claims on 10 crops in Kentucky and two crops in Tennessee. Dillard claimed $422,555 in damage to two Allen County tobacco crops in 2010, when actual damage totaled $169,022, court records said.

He pleaded guilty in May, and his sentencing had been rescheduled from last summer to allow him to harvest and sell his tobacco crops.

Dillard addressed the court briefly at his sentencing, apologizing to his family and friends.

His attorney, Scott Cox of Louisville, argued for Dillard to spend one day in custody and seven months on home incarceration, bringing up Dillard’s lack of a prior criminal history and citing letters of support, including one from Dillard’s ex-wife, that spoke highly of his work ethic as a farmer and kindness as a neighbor.

“He is known as someone who works from morning to night,” Cox said.

Dillard has often loaned farm equipment to neighbors without charge and helped a neighbor salvage some of his equipment from a warehouse fire in 2012, Cox said.

The plea agreement Dillard reached with federal prosecutors called for him to pay a total of $711,958 in restitution. Cox said his client has paid about $200,000 so far and is continuing to pay back the stolen funds by selling equipment and borrowing money.

“If he stays out of custody, he stands a much better chance of beating down this restitution figure,” Cox said.

Assistant U.S. Attorney David Weiser argued for Dillard to be imprisoned for one year and one day, saying the illegal behavior occurred over a few years and involved significant sums of money, and a prison term would deter others from committing a similar offense.

“I must say that, from the first day (Dillard) was apprehended, he acknowledged his wrongdoing and stood up and accepted responsibility for what he has done,” Weiser said.

U.S. District Judge Greg Stivers ruled that Dillard should spend eight months in prison but allowed him to report at a date to be determined.

“It appears to me that allowing a noncustodial sentence would create the perception that this crime has gone unpunished with a slap on the wrist,” Stivers said.

— Follow courts reporter Justin Story on Twitter at twitter.com/jstorydailynews or visit bgdailynews.com.