ELLSWORTH – Shortly before receiving a seven-year jail sentence Tuesday, former Bar Harbor funeral director Paul McFarland told a packed courtroom of more than 60 of his former clients that he was sorry for misusing more than $460,000 of their prearranged burial trusts, adding he was committed to trying to “give something back.”

McFarland was sentenced to seven years in prison, $260,994 in restitution and four months of probation on two counts of theft and one count each of misuse of entrusted property and violation of prearranged funeral or burial plans.

McFarland pleaded guilty earlier this month to stealing more than $480,000 from the mortuary trust accounts of nearly 200 customers.

Carlos Diaz, the assistant attorney general prosecuting the case, told Superior Court Justice Paul T. Pierson that during the 10 years that McFarland operated the McFarland Funeral Home he received funds from clients hoping to save for their eventual funeral costs. “And fairly consistently over those 10 years,” Diaz said, “Mr. McFarland mishandled those funds.”

Diaz said that part of the $480,000 was withdrawn from existing accounts and deposited into the business checking account. Other funds, Diaz said, were simply unaccounted for.

Diaz was critical of McFarland’s claim that the money was solely being used to keep his business open. He said the amount of money stolen implied that it was being used for more than just paying bills.

“Keeping the business going simply doesn’t account for that kind of money,” Diaz said. “A substantial amount of money never made it into the business account. Where it went we don’t know.”

Beverly Sargent, who with her husband and mother-in-law had entrusted money with McFarland only to discover that it disappeared, told the court that she believed the former funeral director was without conscience and “evil.”

Sargent said she and her husband cashed in 30-year life insurance policies in order to pay for the three funerals, hoping that the money could be used to secure an adequate funeral for her and her family members. Now, she said, she is left trying to regenerate those savings.

Sargent also said that her mother-in-law has died, and the funeral she would have desired was simply too expensive for the family to provide. “The one thing my mother-in-law did not want to be was cremated,” Sargent told the court. “And we had to have her cremated.”

“So now we are trying desperately to pay again for something we already paid for,” Sargent said. “It’s not fair Mr. McFarland. I don’t think Mr. McFarland has a conscience. He’s evil, evil.”

McFarland, dressed in a gray suit and sitting quietly throughout his sentencing, rose to address the court and offer his apologies to his victims.

“I am totally remorseful of what has happened and what has transpired in the last 10 years,” McFarland said. “This is not in my makeup.”

McFarland said that he took the money merely as a means of keeping his business open, and had no intention of causing harm to anyone. He described the 10 years of using the trust fund money as a “shell game” which resulted from “falling into the trap of using other people’s money.”

“I honestly and sincerely offer my remorse to the people’s families,” McFarland said. “It doesn’t matter to me if I am incarcerated or not. I still can help.”

McFarland added that he had spent his life trying to help people, and he would now have to consider what had led him to cause so much harm. “It brings you down to the level of saying, ‘wait a minute, I’m not the person I thought I was,”‘ McFarland said.

Pierson, before sentencing McFarland, told the former funeral director that he had reviewed approximately 65 letters from families of people victimized by the thefts, and found them to contain a “sense of outrage and frustration.”

“One can only feel an enormous sadness for the victims of your actions,” Pierson said. “You preyed upon the elderly, perhaps the most helpless segment of our society.”

Pierson also appeared to give little credibility to McFarland’s statements of remorse. “I have been a judge about 20 years,” Pierson said. “And the description you’ve given to the court today is a very common theme. It’s hard to think of a more egregious method of deceiving people.”

McFarland gave no reaction to the sentence, and exchanged handshakes with Diaz and investigators for the state once the sentencing was completed.

He was taken into custody and held at Hancock County Jail Tuesday until the Maine Department of Corrections determines where he will serve his jail time.

Diaz said after the sentencing that Pierson would order a repayment plan for McFarland once a method of prison employment is determined for him.

McFarland also has a military pension that may be used to repay his former clients, though Diaz said he was skeptical that the full amount of the missing funds will ever be repaid.

McFarland will be eligible for parole in four to five years.