Kansas City, Mo. ? A Kansas City man and woman have been sentenced for manufacturing and distributing more than $650,000 in counterfeit checks throughout the Midwest.

Federal prosecutors say 42-year-old Richard Andrew Nelson and 47-year-old Louise Lynette Harrington were sentenced Thursday. Nelson was sentenced to five years in prison without parole and Harrington was sentenced to two years and six months without parole.

Prosecutors say from 2001 to 2009 four people manufactured the fake checks, spent them at stores and later returned the merchandise for cash refunds.

Two other people from Kansas City, Kan., are awaiting sentencing in the scheme.