A former state court employee who took payments from probationers to pay off fines or fees of other probationers avoided prison time Thursday and was sentenced to 400 hours of community service.

Former probation officer Freeman Sasao, 55, was also ordered by Circuit Judge Karen Ahn to pay $5,005.35 restitution to Adult Client Services for the amount he stole from July 2011 to July 2013. He was sentenced for second-degree theft and second-degree forgery.

Sasao apologized in court. He explained that he didn’t pocket the money he received from probationers, said Deputy Attorney General Albert Cook. Sasao said he instead assigned the money to other probationers’ accounts and then forged receipts for the probationers who didn’t pay, Cook said.

Sasao said he committed the theft and forgery because he felt the probationers he was helping couldn’t afford their payments. He also wrote receipts for the probationers who did pay him for fines, fees or court costs.

Sasao must write letters of apology to the 10 people he took money from, and complete his community service by December 2017.

The judge also granted Sasao a deferred acceptance of a guilty plea, which means his convictions for theft and forgery will be wiped from his record if he stays out of legal trouble for four years.

Sasao was charged with one count of second-degree theft and 11 counts of second-degree forgery in May.

Under the terms of a plea agreement, Sasao pleaded guilty June 29 to second-degree theft and second-degree forgery, and the state dropped 10 forgery counts. Second-degree theft and forgery are Class C felonies, punishable by up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine.

The state Judiciary fired Sasao in June 2014.