Funeral director ordered to prison for pocketing advance payments
AUGUSTA, Maine --A former funeral director is going to prison for a year after pleading guilty to pocketing more than $110,000 that people had paid in advance for funerals.
Andrew Pratt, 53, of Windsor, was sentenced Wednesday by Superior Court Justice Nancy Mills. Pratt pleaded guilty last August to theft by unauthorized taking and theft by deception as part of an agreement with prosecutors that limited his prison time to a year.
Pratt operated two funeral homes, one in Windsor and the other in Camden. He was accused of taking money people had paid in advance for funerals and spending it on himself. His attorney, Nathaniel Levy, said Pratt took the money to prop up a failing business.
During his sentencing hearing in Kennebec County Superior Court, some of Pratt's victims asked Mills to impose a longer sentence.
"I do not have the money to pay a second time for my funeral expenses," Verna Ames of Rockland told the judge. Ames said she had lost $1,105 Pratt had taken in 2002 for future funeral expenses.
Diana Blay of Camden and her late husband, Quentin, gave Pratt $3,340 in 2000 to set up two mortuary trust accounts. They learned the following year that Pratt had spent the money instead of depositing it for their burials.
"I feel 12 months in prison is not sufficient for someone who steals from victims when they are at their most frail," Blay said during the sentencing.
Mills, who imposed a sentence of five years with all but one year suspended, said she was limited by terms of the plea bargain.
Some of Pratt's 76 victims sought to recoup their losses in a civil suit in Knox County. The suit ended in 2005 when Pratt agreed to pay $250,000 plus costs. In his plea agreement, he agreed to pay another $144,000 to former clients.
Pratt apologized in court Wednesday and said he hopes to work in health care staffing and administration after his release to make sure his former clients are repaid.
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Information from: Kennebec Journal, http://www.kjonline.com/
