The government’s chief witness in the Penquis Community Action Program weatherization fraud case was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Bangor.

Contractor Berek Dore of Princeton, who testified that he gave regular kickbacks to former Bangor Mayor Thomas F. Davis Jr., a former Penquis CAP weatherization supervisor, was sentenced to one year in prison and ordered to pay a $10,000 fine.

Dore, who admitted that he overbilled the weatherization program for materials and performed shoddy work, also was ordered to pay restitution to the federal government amounting to $132,000.

The sentence was handed down by U.S. District Judge Gene Carter, who ordered the contractor to begin his sentence immediately.

Carter called Dore’s crime “an extremely serious offense that involved a lot of money.”

“It involved victimizing those people in our society that the government was at pains under the program involved to try to benefit because of their very impecunious circumstances,” said the federal judge. “And that makes the offense particularly reprehensible.”

Dore’s attorney, Gary Norton of Bangor, emphasized his client’s cooperation with the government during Friday’s hearing, and said his client should receive 60 days in jail. Norton said after the hearing that he would not appeal the sentence.

“The restitution didn’t surprise me,” said the attorney. “The $10,000 fine did. It’s within the court’s descretion, and it was a serious crime.”

Calling it “one of the largest fraud cases” ever prosecuted by the U.S. Attorney’s Office, Jay McCloskey, assistant U.S. attorney, recommended that Dore receive a maximum of two years in prison. After the hearing, the federal prosecutor said, however, that the one-year sentence was “a fair sentence.”

“It’s substantial jail time, a substantial fine, and substantial restitution,” he said.

During the hearing, Dore apologized to the court, saying, “What happened back then was real wrong.”

Dore, 35, who pleaded guilty to conspiracy charges, was one of three key witnesses in the May trial of Davis and co-defendant Karl Anderson of Bangor, both charged with conspiracy to defraud the federal government from January 1981 to December 1985.

Davis was convicted of fraud and falsifying government statements, but found innocent of extortion. Anderson was found innocent of conspiracy.

During Davis’ trial, Dore, who operated Northern New England Contractors, described how he gave Davis payments in return for lucrative weatherization jobs. A subsequent state inspection revealed that at least 928 homes in Penobscot and Piscataquis counties may have had inadequate work done through the weatherization program.

Dore appeared last month in federal court in Portland for sentencing, but Carter, considering restitution, ordered him to get an audit of his finances after the contractor presented conflicting figures.

On Friday, McCloskey told the judge Dore was in the process of having the audit done, but Carter nonetheless decided to proceed with the sentencing.

McCloskey told the judge that the restitution figure was calculated on the amount of materials missing from the homes on which Dore’s crew worked. He also acknowledged Dore’s cooperation with the government.

“Without Mr. Dore’s cooperation and testimony at trial, the government may very well not have convicted Mr. Davis,” said the prosecutor.