ELLSWORTH – A former Bar Harbor funeral director has pleaded guilty to four criminal charges that he mishandled more than $480,000 from 200 customers who set aside money for use in prearranged burial plans.

Paul C. McFarland is expected to be sentenced later this month. He entered his plea Nov. 7 in Hancock County Superior Court on two counts of theft and one count each of misuse of entrusted property and violation of prearranged funeral or burial plans.

The plea was part of an agreement between McFarland and the state Attorney General’s Office, which is prosecuting the case. McFarland also agreed to pay back the more than $480,000 in restitution to his former customers.

The sentencing will be conducted after the state recommends what McFarland’s punishment should be. Bob Way, a spokesman for the state Attorney General’s Office, said Tuesday he couldn’t discuss the state’s request for a jail term because it might affect the plea agreement.

“This is not finalized until the judge says so,” Way said

McFarland operated McFarland Funeral Home on Eden Street in Bar Harbor and held a funeral practitioner’s license for 11 years. He was forced to surrender his license and is barred from obtaining a license to practice in Maine or elsewhere in accordance with a consent agreement he signed in June.

Complaints about misuse of funds started streaming into the Maine Board of Funeral Service after investigators there responded to a complaint from a Bar Harbor woman who opened a mortuary trust account with McFarland Funeral Home in 1982.

After reviewing the woman’s bank records, investigators discovered McFarland had opened an account containing $2,920 in October 1982. Bank records from April 1996 showed that McFarland withdrew $1,827.63 from the account and two years later withdrew the remaining funds totaling $4,741.62 and closed the account.

The consumer apparently told investigators she had not authorized any withdrawals from the mortuary trust account and had not been notified of the transactions.

When confronted by the state funeral inspector in February 1999, McFarland refused to provide records, but admitted that he had withdrawn her mortuary trust funds together with interest and deposited them into the funeral home’s checking account.

Since that time nearly 200 people have been found to have lost some or all of the money they entrusted with McFarland.

McFarland disappeared for two days in September 1999 while the state conducted its investigation into his business practices.

A Hancock County sheriff’s deputy found McFarland in a parked car in a remote area of Aurora with business records that had been ordered to be turned over to investigators. Those records were later obtained through a search warrant.

McFarland was indicted on the four counts in April, and later that month entered not guilty pleas on all counts. He has since moved from Bar Harbor to Brewer.

Marvin Glazier, McFarland’s Bangor lawyer, didn’t return a phone call seeking comment Tuesday.