A former Kanabec County sheriff will spend 20 years on probation after admitting that he swindled a Woodbury man in a scam involving the purchase of a vintage airplane.

Von F. Thompson, 56, of Mora, Minn., who was sheriff from 1983 to 1999, also was ordered to pay $113,000 in restitution to victim David Pietsch in a March 21 sentencing in Washington County District Court.

Judge Elizabeth Martin stayed a prison sentence for 20 years.

She gave Thompson credit for 202 days spent in the county jail.

According to the criminal complaint, Thompson persuaded Pietsch in June 2008 to lend him money to buy and refurbish a 1952 Beech C35 airplane and two motorcycles.

Pietsch told authorities he had considered Thompson a friend and trusted him because he had been a sheriff.

Thompson was convicted in 2010 for a similar scheme that bilked a 91-year-old Mora man out of $172,000.

KEVIN GILES