The former sports agent of disgraced US sprinter Marion Jones was sentenced to six months of home detention on Wednesday for his role in a cheque fraud case that also helped bring about the sprinter's downfall.

Charles Wells was sentenced after pleading guilty last March to bank fraud charges related to a $5 million counterfeit cheque scheme that also involved Jones and, her ex-boyfriend and, former 100 meters record holder, Tim Montgomery, as well as her former coach, Steve Riddick.

During his sentencing, Wells, 56, told US District Judge Kenneth Karas in Manhattan federal court that "it was wrong what I did and I should have known better."

Wells, who also was Montgomery's agent, was suspended by USA Track & Field, the sport's US governing body, for two years.

In January, Karas sentenced Jones to six months in prison for misleading investigators about the same cheque fraud scheme and for lying about her steroid use in a separate investigation.

Jones is due to report to prison by March 11. She was stripped of her five Sydney 2000 Olympic medals.


Kenyan distance runner Susan Chepkemei has been banned for a year after admitting illegal drug use. The 32-year-old former Commonwealth 10,000 metres silver medallist and former New York marathon runner-up co-operated with officials after she tested positive for the banned substance salbutamol in September. Chepkemei had been administered the banned substance when she was treated for pneumonia at a Nairobi hospital.

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