A St. Louis deli owner who defrauded the food stamp system out of $400,000 dollars will go to prison for a year and a half, and has to repay the food stamp system forthe money he took.

The federal prosecutor says James Norvell Fitch had two stores that sold things that cannot be legally purchased with food stamps, often inflated the prices of those items and sometimes let food stamp recipients trade their benefits for cash. 

A clerk in one of his stores will be sentenced later.