FITCHBURG, Mass. (AP) – A man who owes more than $140,000 in child support to his Westminster family pleaded guilty, and will serve 11 months in prison, Fitchburg court officials said.

Robert Straitt, 47, formerly of Westminster, was arrested in Iowa last June and brought back to Massachusetts after allegedly failing to pay $550 in child support every week since 1997. Straitt pleaded guilty in Fitchburg District Court on Tuesday to failure to comply with orders from Probate Court and leaving Massachusetts without making reasonable provisions for the support of his minor children.

The state Department of Revenue’s Child Support Enforcement Division obtained an arrest warrant in June. With penalties, he allegedly owes more than $140,000, the Sentinel & Enterprise of Fitchburg reported.

“He will be paying probably for the rest of his life,” said Peter Sargent, Straitt’s lawyer.

Judge Elliott Zide sentenced him to 2 1/2 years in jail on the conviction for failing to comply with court orders, with 11 months to serve and six months suspended. He’ll get credit for time served.

Zide dismissed another a charge of abandoning a spouse and minor children without providing child support.

Straitt has three children from a marriage that ended in divorce in 1994.

“He last saw his children in 1997, in July, and he’s had some telephone contact with them, but very limited,” Sargent said.

Straitt lived in Minnesota, Texas, and most recently in Iowa with a new family, Sargent said.