TONAWANDA, NY - Former City of Tonawanda car dealership owner Todd Hammar was spared a prison term Wednesday after he turned over another check for $13,600 in partial repayment of the nearly $120,000 in sales tax receipts he failed to give the state earlier this decade.

Hammar, 40, the former operator of Delaware Auto Leasing at 55 Delaware St. in Tonawanda, was placed on probation for the next five years by Senior Erie County Judge Michael L. D’Amico and ordered to begin making monthly payments of $1,576.34 for the next 60 months to the state Department of Taxation and Finance.

Hammar told the judge that for the past four years, he had been paying $500 a month in restitution payments to settle an unrelated $100,000 Niagara County larceny case.

On May 19, Hammar pleaded guilty to a felony charge of fourth-degree grand larceny. In January 2008 a customer complained to authorities about an inaccurate sales contract on a 2007 car deal with Hammar.