BELFAST (AP) – A Belfast man faces a felony theft charge for allegedly stealing more than $150,0000 from the store where he worked in order to buy lottery tickets, police said.

Lewis Dyer, 36, developed a scheme where he would take people’s cash for gasoline or food purchases at the Belfast Variety but wouldn’t ring them up on the cash register, instead using the money to buy lottery tickets, said Belfast Detective Michael McFadden.

Dyer cashed more than $33,000 in lottery winnings last year, McFadden said.

“When I went to the Maine State Lottery Commission as part of my investigation, they knew Mr. Dyer by name,” he said. “Mr. Dyer told me he had a gambling addiction.”

The store owners contacted police in November after experiencing cash flow problems, McFadden said. They became suspicious of Dyer when they noticed that gasoline and grocery sales declined whenever he was working, but that lottery sales boomed during his shifts.

When customers bought gas or other items, Dyer used the money to buy lottery tickets.

“If he won, he won. If he didn’t, he didn’t,” McFadden said. “He wasn’t playing with his money.”

When Dyer was confronted in mid-November, he admitted the scheme and was remorseful, but also downplayed how much he had stolen, initially saying he was responsible for taking $10,000 to $20,000, the detective said.

McFadden was jailed on $10,000 bail.

He was also charged with violating probation from a previous conviction on eight counts of sexual abuse of a minor. Probation conditions required that he not engage in criminal conduct.