A former general contractor convicted three years ago of theft in Bowling Green was sentenced Thursday in Texas to seven years in prison after defrauding a church.

Gregg Howell was sentenced on a theft charge in Washington County (Texas) District Court, according to Washington County Assistant District Attorney Elizabeth Whittington.

Howell had been the subject of a civil lawsuit in Texas connected to the theft allegation, but criminal charges were pursued against him after he pleaded guilty in 2007 in Warren County to theft by deception over $300.

Investigators said Howell received money from New Beginnings Missionary Baptist Church in Brenham, Texas, to construct a new facility, but failed to do so.

“Basically, he was supposed to construct a church for New Beginnings, he took $160,000 and didn’t really do anything,” Whittington said.

The church took out a loan for the money, which it then paid to Howell, Whittington said.

Howell and his wife, Diana, owned Worldwide Concrete and Steel Erections in Kentucky when they encountered legal trouble here.

The local theft charge resulted from an investigation that revealed that they had money wired to their local account from a bank in the Western United States. The couple then sent the money back, but then they each withdrew $10,000 from the American Bank and Trust account prior to bank records indicating the money was no longer there.

The Howells repaid a portion of the money before they were charged. They were sentenced to five years in prison in the Kentucky case and were ordered to make the full $20,000 restitution.

When he pleaded guilty in Warren Circuit Court, people from Texas, Louisiana and Tennessee who said they had bad business experiences with Howell were in attendance, including representatives from New Beginnings.

At the time, Southside Church of Christ members claimed that Gregg Howell also failed to deliver on a contract to construct a new building on Plano Road. In 2006, the church sent a letter to Gregg Howell requesting to cut ties with him on the new building and for a refund of the $23,000 the church paid to him.

Gregg Howell’s legal troubles were not limited to Kentucky and Texas. Warrants against him originating in Arizona and Virginia were served against him while he was in Kentucky answering to the Warren County charges.

Those warrants were for other theft charges.

Whittington said she was aware of the cases in other states, but was unsure of the status of the investigations.

Howell is in custody in Texas and will soon be placed in a Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison, Whittington said.