A judge sentenced a Poland man in federal court to three years of probation with a portion of home detention for submitting false claims to a federal veterans agency, authorities said.

Steven Chartier, 58, also was ordered to pay more than $10,000 in restitution to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs.

He pleaded guilty to the charge in U.S. District Court in Portland on Sept. 26.

Chartier claimed travel benefits for more than 64 trips of 260 miles between Limestone and the Togus VA Medical Center for medical treatment, claiming to live in Aroostook County. He actually lived at 18 Garrett Lane in Poland, a roughly 40-mile trip to the hospital. The agency reimbursed him for mileage totaling $10,448.06 more than he was legally entitled to receive, court records said.

Federal Judge Nancy Torresen sentenced Chartier on Monday to probation, including up to six months of home confinement. He is barred from having alcohol, firearms or dangerous weapons and must participate in mental health treatment and alcohol and substance abuse counseling.

In fashioning the sentence, Judge Torresen “observed that fraud was not new to the defendant and stated that she would have jailed him but for the cost to the taxpayers given his deteriorated, wheelchair-bound medical condition,” U.S. Attorney Thomas Delahanty II said Tuesday in a statement.

Chartier was eligible for travel benefits because he was 70 percent disabled by back and leg conditions, according to court papers.