The former owners of a Redwood City, Calif., auto repair shop will spend time behind bars for their connection to an insurance fraud scheme that involved stuffing dead rodents into cars and claiming the need for extensive work to the vehicles.

Mehran Baranriz, 47, and his ex-wife Bita Imani, 36, were both recently sentenced in San Mateo County Superior Court, according to the San Jose Mercury News.

Baranriz received four years in prison after pleading no contest to 10 counts of insurance fraud, and Imani was ordered to serve six months in county jail following a no-contest plea to a single count of felony tax evasion, according to the report. The couple, former owners of Group Specialist Inc., initially faced 56 felony counts of insurance fraud by the San Mateo District Attorney’s Office.

The pair must also pay $875,772 in restitution to 25 insurance companies, the report said.

Prosecutors said the couple’s auto shop billed 236 insurance claims, totaling more than $1.2 million, between January 2003 and March 2007 for work never done. One of the key parts of the scheme involved killing rodents, including mice painted black to resemble rats, and stuffing them into parts of the cars, then claiming rodent damage, according to prosecutors, who alleged that Imani and Baranriz directed their mechanics to take such steps.

Imani, who argued she was not part of the scheme, has filed a separate civil suit against Baranriz and two former mechanics. She alleges the mechanics submitted fake repair invoices to insurers without her knowledge and received immunity from prosecution by fraudulently testifying in court she knew about the scheme