BANGOR – An insurance salesman from Winslow was sentenced to five months in prison Wednesday after earlier pleading guilty to embezzling more than $150,000 from customers. With interest, the amount of loss was almost doubled and Donald Gorneau was ordered to pay $287,202.70 in restitution.

Gorneau will complete 150 days, about five months, of home detention after his prison sentence for a white-collar crime that apparently spanned several years.

The sentencing took place at U.S. District Court in Bangor. U.S. District Judge George Z. Singal presided.

A professional-looking man, Gorneau, 50, wore a tailored suit and blue shirt and tie to his sentencing. He apologized for his actions saying, “I don’t know why it started or why it progressed.”

Gorneau told the judge that over the past eight or nine years his sanity was “marginal” and his family life “shattered.” He was difficult to live with, Gorneau said, and finally “my guilt and remorse forced me to turn myself in.”

Singal ordered restitution to be made to the Prudential Insurance Co. Gorneau worked for the Waterville branch of the firm for 15 years until he reported his wrongdoing in March 2000.

According to a court document, Gorneau collected a total of $12,432.18 in premium payments from 15 Prudential policyholders between Nov. 17, 1996, and March 21, 2000, but did not turn the payments over to Prudential, “instead converting the money to his own use.”

During the same time period, he collected $146,820 from four Prudential policyholders, promising to invest their money in a tax-free Prudential account that he told them would earn them 10 to 12 percent interest. Instead, Gorneau converted the funds to his own use, according to a court document. Regarding the investment money, Gorneau is required to pay back the total sum plus the interest that would have been earned at the minimum 10 percent level he promised the four customers.

Gorneau “periodically gave the four policyholders what he represented were interest checks to avoid any detection of wrongdoing” states a court document.

Prudential learned of the scheme in March 2000, when Gorneau hired an attorney and “voluntarily brought it to the company’s attention,” court records state.

He provided Prudential with a list of victims, access to his financial records and a written admission of wrongdoing.

After an internal investigation, Prudential paid each of the victims the full amount of their losses and reinstated policies that had lapsed as a result of Gorneau’s “misconduct,” according to court papers.