Nashville Bike Week: Organizer Jailed In Maury County

COLUMBIA, TN -- The man behind the cancelled Nashville Bike Week event is once again behind bars.

A Maury County judged sentenced Mike Leffingwell - who also goes by the name Mike Axel - to nine months in jail after revoking his probation on a theft charge. Leffingwell had been jailed since an arrest in Kentucky in June.

During his time at the forefront of the planned festival, Leffingwell had multiple outstanding warrants in Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia and Missouri on a variety of charges ranging from probation violations to failure to appear to larceny. In 2007, Leffingwell was sentenced to three years in federal prison and ordered by a U.S. District Court Judge in Missouri to pay nearly a quarter of a million dollars in restitution after defrauding numerous companies by presenting himself as a NASCAR truck series driver and signing those companies up for advertising deals for the 2006 NASCAR season. Leffingwell drove in just four NASCAR events between September 2001 and July 2005 and in none after engaging in his scheme. He pleaded guilty to wire fraud and for failure to appear.Leffingwell has also been the subject of numerous Better Business Bureau complaints, not just in Tennessee but in West Virginia as well, typically about uncompleted but paid-for work.

Leffingwell, whose history of scams goes back years, promised a 10-day festival of music and motorcycles, originally planned for Loretta Lynn's Ranch in Hurricane Mills. The ranch backed out during a dispute about payment and state permits. Nashville Bike Week announced as many as four other venues, but the event - which Leffingwell alleged would draw 150,000 people - never went off.

Despite promising refunds, it is not clear that any have been paid.

Image via Shutterstock