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To avoid paying more taxes, he claimed the depreciation of his personal cars as business expenses.

 A former Arizona state legislator and justice of the peace was sentenced to six months in prison for filing a false tax return.

Keith Allan Bee, 56, of San Tan Valley, Arizona, owns a company providing school bus transportation, and he had previously pleaded guilty to one count of willfully filing a false tax return.

Bee, a Republican who served as justice of the peace from 2007 to 2018, admitted that during each tax year from 2011 to 2013, he inflated his business expenses by including personal expenses and the depreciation of personal assets as if they were costs incurred by his business, in order to reduce his company’s profits and the taxes he owed on them.

Those personal assets included several Ford Mustangs, a Chevrolet Corvette and a Porsche. Bee agreed that the resulting tax loss from his conduct was $214,414.

Bee retired from the bench soon after charges were made public in September 2018.

“Reporting income and paying taxes are important aspects of patriotism,” U.S. Attorney Gary Restaino said in a prepared statement. “Let this case serve as a reminder that all people … may face prison time when they cheat on their taxes.”

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