By NEAL WAGNER / City Editor

A Pelham physician will spend the next two years on probation, and must pay more than $40,000 in restitution after he was sentenced for failing to pay income taxes.

On Sept. 13, Alabama Attorney General Luther Strange announced the conviction of Dr. Aubrey Dennis Scott, a physician in Pelham, for failure to pay income taxes.

Scott, 52, pleaded guilty on Sept. 4 in Shelby County Circuit Court to three counts of failure to pay income taxes. He was sentenced to 12 months for each of the three counts, which was suspended, and he was placed on probation for two years.

Scott was also ordered to pay a $25,000 fine and $17,336 in restitution to the Department of Revenue for unpaid taxes, penalties and interest. Scott also was ordered to serve 500 hours of community service in the medical field.

The State’s evidence against Scott included records showing Scott failed to pay income taxes for the 2005, 2006 and 2007 tax years, according to Strange’s office.

“This conviction should serve as a reminder that failure to pay income taxes will not be tolerated,” Strange wrote in the release. “Tax crimes will be thoroughly investigated, prosecuted, and punished.”

The Attorney General commended Deputy Attorney General Mike Duffy of the Attorney General’s Special Prosecutions Division and Special Agent Efe’ Dangerfield of the Alabama Department of Revenue’s Investigations Division.