MUSKEGON, MI - Muskegon's Lawrence Robert Ochs will go to prison for collecting welfare payments while owning and running a business, along with a firearm charge.

Ochs was sentenced Monday, March 6 in U.S. District Court in Grand Rapids for a count of conspiracy to defraud the United States and conspiracy to make a false statement during purchase of a firearm. Judge Janet T. Neff ordered Ochs to serve two sentences of a year and a day in the federal prison system for each charge.

He'll serve both terms at the same time, or concurrently, in federal prison. He'll be supervised for two years after his release and has been ordered to repay $63,236 in restitution to the U.S. Department of Agriculture and the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services.

Ochs had earlier pleaded guilty to both charges in a plea deal with federal prosecutor's office.

"Starting in at least April 2008, the defendant and his wife agreed to submit applications for welfare benefits in which they would not fully disclose their household income and assets," according to the plea deal document. "Their purpose in doing so was to obtain welfare benefits to which they knew and believed they would not be entitled if they fully disclosed their household income and assets."

While he applied for welfare benefits, though, Ochs had a business that he owned and operated, SC2 Leasing and Logistics, LLC.

On the firearm count, Ochs asked another individual to buy a .45 caliber, semi-automatic pistol with a high-capacity magazine for him because Ochs "knew he could not purchase the firearm himself because he could not pass the background check."

Och's defense attorney, David Dodge of Grand Rapids, wasn't available for comment March 10.

Ochs' partners in a different trucking company, Copper Creek Carriers, LLC, attended Ochs' sentencing, and said they were disappointed his sentence was not more severe.

Ochs' partners in a trucking company, Michael Boles and his son Jacob, attended Ochs' sentencing, and said they were disappointed his sentence was not more severe.

Michael Boles and his son Jacob said they've been involved in a separate dispute with Ochs over funds and debts of Copper Creek Carriers.

"He's a lifelong family friend," Jacob Boles said of Ochs. "We feel very betrayed."