BANGOR – A former employee of the University of Maine department of athletics was sentenced Tuesday in Penobscot County Superior Court.

Meghan L. Doyle, 31, of Franklin, Mass., had been indicted by a Penobscot County grand jury for theft by unauthorized taking after having pleaded not guilty last September to driving a rental car for nine months and charging it to the university.

She allegedly racked up more than $10,000 worth of charges to the university.

Superior Court Justice Joseph Jabar sentenced Doyle, who was convicted of Class D theft, a misdemeanor, to 150 hours of community service. Doyle also was ordered to pay, and has paid, restitution of $10,535, according to Michael Roberts, deputy district attorney for Penobscot County.

Doyle was the director of student services in the Department of Athletics from September 2003 until May 2005, when she quit her job, UM spokesman Joe Carr said in a previous interview.

Doyle’s primary responsibility was managing community service programs in which athletes were involved, such as Habitat for Humanity and reading to pupils at area schools, Carr said.

In September 2004, Doyle rented a sedan from Enterprise Rent-A-Car using a university purchasing card to take some athletes to Boston for a department-approved conference, he said.

When the event was over and she returned to Maine, Doyle allegedly kept the car for her own use. The rental car company continued to charge the university.

The alleged theft was discovered after Doyle left the university in May 2005 and the university routinely canceled the purchasing card used by the former employee, Carr said. The university learned the next month that Doyle had kept the car when the car rental company contacted the purchasing office seeking to arrange payment because the card had been canceled.

The rental company recovered the car from Doyle on July 6, 2005, in Massachusetts, Carr said.

The University Police Department investigated the case and turned its findings over to the Penobscot County District Attorney’s Office, according to Carr.