ANDERSON - Martin Wynn will spend a year and a day in jail for falsifying a state seal of approval on construction plans for lengthening the Oconee County Regional Airport runway.

Federal Judge G. Ross Anderson, Jr. on Tuesday sentenced Wynn to 12 months plus one day on each of the two counts of mail and wire fraud he was convicted of in May. The sentences will run concurrently. The 44-year-old Wilmington, N.C., engineer must also pay $118,000 in restitution to Oconee County. He will also be subject to three years of supervision following his release from prison and must begin paying the restitution at $500 per month 60 days after his release. Judge Anderson was amenable to a request by Wynn's attorneys that his reporting to prison be delayed until after Christmas. Wynn could have been sentenced to 20 years and a $250,000 fine on each of the charges. Federal prosecutor Winston Holliday requested that Wynn be sentenced to at least 18 months. In May, Wynn was convicted of transferring a South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control seal from an approved set of construction site plans onto an unapproved set of plans while employed by the consulting engineering firm of Talbert & Bright. The falsified document represented that the plans had a necessary storm water permit. The plans were sent to Oconee County, which proceeded with the project under the impression all necessary permits were in place. The unapproved work on the airport project coincided with significant run-off of sediment and mud onto private property and into Lake Hartwell. The airport runway lengthening has been completed but the case is currently ensnarled in a web of litigation involving Oconee County, Talbert & Bright and a Georgia construction firm that performed the work. Tuesday, attorneys for Wynn argued that while their client had admitted falsifying the seal, his action involved no act of fraud and did not rise to being a federal crime. Wynn's attorneys argued that another Talbert & Bright employee had been responsible for obtaining the necessary permits, had not obtained them and that Wynn had sought only to cover this failing through a "forgery of the permit." The attorneys pointed out that in fact DHEC had never processed a check intended as payment for the permit applications. Holliday argued that the fraud − and therefore the amount of restitution − involved the money paid Talbert & Bright by Oconee County from November 2009 through February 2010, when work on the airport was proceeding under a fraudulent permit. Though 95 percent of the money involved derived from a Federal Aeronautics Administration grant, Holliday said Oconee County was still the harmed party. Judge Anderson denied motions by Wynn's attorneys for variance from the sentencing guidelines, when they asked for no jail time. Wynn had lost his engineering license, the attorney's said. He was unemployable in his field and represented no threat of future crimes. "I've ruined my career," Wynn told the judge. "I did not defraud anyone and I'm truly sorry for what I did." After passing sentence, Anderson said to Wynn, "All right, now get your life straightened out."