A former employee of a South Bristol seafood wholesaler will go to jail and pay $14,866.90 in restitution for pocketing the proceeds of lobster sales.
Joshua B. Seiders, 31, of Damariscotta, pleaded guilty to Class B theft by unauthorized taking or transfer Oct. 1 in Lincoln County Superior Court.
Justice Andrew Horton sentenced Seiders, per the terms of a plea agreement, to three years in prison with all but a 30-day jail term suspended and two years of probation. He must repay the business, Osier’s Wharf, as a probation condition.
A prosecutor said Seiders, an employee of the business for 2.5 years, would sell the wharf’s lobsters to a wholesale buyer and tell the buyer the lobsters were his cousin’s.
The prosecutor said Seiders cooperated with authorities, leading to a relatively light sentence as part of a plea agreement.
The prosecutor said the owner of Osier’s Wharf, David Osier, believes Seiders stole significantly more than the restitution amount, but the state, using the available “paper trail,” could only confirm the $14,866.90 figure.