WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. -- Two North Carolina tax preparers are headed to prison after admitting they filled out hundreds of fake tax returns involving more than half a million dollars.

Federal prosecutors say Kristyn Daney and Rakeem Scales admitted Friday to preparing a false tax return for an Internal Revenue Service undercover agent three years ago. They face at least three years in prison plus restitution.

Daney and Scales said ahead of the 2014 tax filing season they were directed to manipulate client information to maximize refunds. They said those instructions came from a co-owner of Fast Tax in Winston-Salem.

Former Forsyth County magistrate and local NAACP president S. Wayne Patterson was one of the businesses owners. He pleaded guilty in November to aiding and assisting in the preparation of a false tax return.