ALFRED, Maine — A Wells man was sentenced Monday in York County Superior Court to four years in prison with all but eight months suspended for failing to pay more than $200,000 in sales tax collected at a Sanford restaurant he owned, according to the Maine attorney general’s office.
Christo Stratos, 69, also was sentenced to three years of probation and ordered to pay $243,902 in restitution to the state.
Stratos is to begin serving his sentence on Feb. 8.
He pleaded guilty to multiple counts of theft by misapplication of sales tax, intentional evasion of sales tax and failure to truthfully collect, account and pay sales tax, a press release issued Wednesday said.
Stratos operated the restaurant Christo’s Place in Sanford from 1999 through 2014, according to the attorney general’s office.
By pleading guilty, he admitted that he collected sales tax from restaurant patrons but turned over only a fraction of that tax to the Maine Revenue Services.
“Stratos admitted to the Maine Revenue Services’ criminal investigators that he thought it was ‘commonplace’ for business owners to underreport collected sales tax,” the press release said.
Stratos has paid $100,000 of the restitution and is scheduled to pay another $50,000 before he begins serving his sentence, the press release said.
The restaurant owner faced up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $20,000 on the theft charge.