Kansas City, Mo ? The federal district court in Kansas City has finished mailing checks to victims of former pharmacist Robert R. Courtney, who was convicted of diluting drugs he prepared for cancer patients, officials said.

The final batch of checks was mailed last week, said Paige Wymore-Wynn, chief deputy clerk for the U.S. District Court in Kansas City. Each of more than 1,000 verified victims or their families received $10,350 under the restitution program.

Courtney pleaded guilty in early 2002 to 20 counts related to his dilution of 158 chemotherapy doses of the drugs Taxil and Gemzar, which he prepared at his Kansas City business, Research Pharmacy. He is serving a 30-year prison term but has appealed the sentence.

Courtney made money by charging patients full prices for diluted doses of the expensive cancer medications and pocketing the difference.

The restitution program pertains only to the cancer-drug dilutions and is separate from the hundreds of civil lawsuits that arose from the scheme.

Courtney also admitted that he had tampered with 72 medications since 1992. Federal investigators have estimated that the dilutions affected as many as 4,200 patients and 98,000 prescriptions for many types of drugs.

Money for the restitution program came from the sale of Courtney’s assets. One piece of Courtney’s real estate seized by the government — a town home in northern Kansas City — has not been sold. When that sale is completed, the court will send out a second set of restitution checks.

Wymore-Wynn said that sale could take as long as two years to complete. Because of the time lag, she asked that claimants keep her office informed of their current addresses.

The town home is expected to sell for about $250,000, Wymore-Wynn said.