FARMINGTON — A Eustis bookkeeper was sentenced Monday in Franklin County Superior Court for embezzling almost a half million dollars from her former employer, the J. L. Brochu logging company of Stratton.

Tracy Ricker, 43, was sentenced to six years with all but one year suspended, three years probation and ordered to make restitution of $334,542. That amount was left after about $106,000 of the more than $450,000 taken was returned. She pleaded guilty to embezzlement in February.

“I’m so sorry. I know I lost a good employer and friend,” Ricker told the court as she broke into tears. “I disappointed everybody in my life and destroyed my marriage.”

“Although the victim will never be made whole,” Justice Michaela Murphy said she agreed with a new state statute pointed out by Assistant District Attorney James Andrews.

It provides for Ricker’s probation officer to determine the amount to be paid back while she’s on probation, and then the court will determine the amount she’s able to pay, Andrew said after the proceeding.

From 2005 to 2009, Ricker was employed by James Brochu to manage, maintain and reconcile accounts, pay invoices, oversee accounts payable and receivable, and maintain accurate records of his company’s finances.

In January 2009, Brochu became suspicious and examined the finances only to realize at least 64 unauthorized checks were written without his knowledge or consent, Andrews told the court. Some were written for cash, some to local automobile businesses and others that were not affiliated with Brochu’s business.

When state police confronted her, she agreed that she was responsible by printing out checks and signing Brochu’s name or having him pre-sign checks and then using them to pay for items she had purchased, he said.

“It’s a staggering amount of money,” Andrews added, asking the court for a sentence of seven years of a maximum 10. The fact she had no criminal record and admitted her guilt were mitigating factors, he said.

“It was an easy paper trail case with no effort to conceal,” he said. “She was giving herself a $100,000 raise a year.”

The case needs to send a message to the community that there are serious consequences to those engaged in this activity, he said.

Ricker’s attorney, Ronald Bourget, disagreed, saying this was not a good example for the general public because his client has some serious mental health issues.

The state contends some were brought on after the case broke and her husband filed for divorce.

“It was an improper impulse of someone with mental health issues,” Bourget said,  asking the court for a lesser sentence of four years with all but 90 days suspended and time to be served at the Skowhegan County Jail. He also asked for three years of probation.

He expected Ricker could pay about $1,200 a year restitution and had already saved more than $600, he said.

The violation of trust and the fact that for any business in Maine to lose that amount of money has to have a ripple affect on other employees, Murphy said. A theft of this magnitude requires a sentence at the corrections center rather than the county jail, she added, while acknowledging Ricker’s remorse.

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