ELLSWORTH – Cecelia G. White, the Exeter woman charged with embezzling more than $400,000 from two Maine businesses while she worked at each one as a bookkeeper, pleaded guilty to theft charges Thursday morning when she appeared in Hancock County Superior Court.

White, 41, was indicted by a Hancock County grand jury last February for taking $308,000 from a Surry forester between 2002 and 2004 and by a Penobscot County grand jury last June for taking $107,000 from a Bangor restaurant owner in 2001.

According to Hancock County District Attorney Michael E. Povich, White transferred money to her own bank accounts while working at the now-closed Asian Palace restaurant and again while working for David and Alice Jean Warren, owners of the logging company.

Povich said the independent bookkeeper wrote 415 checks while employed by the Warrens, with the majority of them made out to herself and her two businesses, White’s Computer Service and White’s Refrigeration.

David Warren discovered the unauthorized transfers after payroll checks started to bounce.

“Dave and Alice Jean aren’t the first people who have had this happen to them,” Povich said Thursday after the hearing. “They trusted Cecelia White … because they know no other way but to trust people. This is a serial embezzler.”

The sentence against the Exeter woman will be continued for at least one year, and the length of time she spends in prison will depend upon how much restitution she can produce in that period, according a plea agreement presented by the district attorneys of Penobscot and Hancock counties.

If she pays back $25,000, she would serve up to five years of a nine-year sentence to the state Department of Corrections. If she fails to do so, she would be ordered to serve up to six years. If she pays $50,000, her prison time would be reduced to a maximum of four years.

Povich said the graduated sentence was designed to mete out an appropriate punishment but also to give White an incentive for reimbursing her victims. Restitution is to be split proportionately between Marilyn Lau and the Warrens.

Her case will be subject to a status review after six months.

The court also placed a lien on her cash bail of $10,000, which was posted by a friend or relative after her arraignment last January. Povich asked the judge to convey the money to the Warrens, and White has until Dec. 19 to convince the person who posted her bail to release it to the couple.

White’s attorney, Joseph M. Baldacci, said his client is working with family members and friends to raise money for restitution. He couldn’t say Thursday whether she has a job.

“She’s feeling OK about [the sentence],” Baldacci said. “I think she realizes it’s a good sentence. She realizes that the state made some concessions in the plea agreement.”

After the hearing, David Warren said he and his wife have been devastated by White’s actions. During the ordeal, they lost their medical insurance coverage and incurred tens of thousands of dollars in legal, accounting and banking fees. They sold items and borrowed money to make ends meet and have delayed their plans for retirement.

“I’m really not interested in her going to jail,” he said. “What we are interested in is getting as much money back as we can.”

He said the state should exercise more control and help local business owners by requiring people who work as bookkeepers to be licensed in the same way he is licensed to work as a forester.

“We hope we can recover and go back to where we were,” he said. “Psychologically, you don’t ever recover from this. It robs you of a part of you that you can never get back.”