PORTLAND – A former vice president of the Hannaford Bros. supermarket chain was sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court to 46 months in prison for stealing hundreds of thousands of dollars from his employer.

Martin Greeley, 51, of Scarborough, who pleaded guilty last August to charges of mail fraud and tax evasion, was also ordered to pay $657,260 in restitution and spend three years on probation after he gets out of prison.

Greeley was charged with creating fictitious vendors and authorizing payments from Hannaford to those vendors for services that were never performed. He then deposited checks issued by Hannaford to those vendors into accounts he had created, according to U.S. Attorney Paula Silsby.

Greeley worked for Hannaford for 26 years, starting as a meat cutter and holding several positions until he became vice president for government relations in 2002.