A man who stole almost $12,000 from his former employer was sentenced Thursday to 10 days in the Warren County Jail.

Jason Scott, the 33-year-old former US Bank employee, was facing a possible 9 1/2 year prison sentence on identity fraud, grand theft, telecommunications fraud, forgery and unauthorized use of property charges. He plead guilty to identity theft and telecommunications fraud in August.

Judge James Flannery sentenced him to 10 days in jail and three years probation. He also must repay the bank $11,896. Flannery said the 10-day jail sentence was predicated on Scott paying $5,000 of the restitution amount by Friday. He said if it isn’t paid by 4 p.m. he’ll be in jail for 30 days. His attorney Nathan Elter said his client got into a bind that got him into trouble.

“This is his first offense. He is greatly remorseful for it,” Elter said. “He was trying to cover a debt and it snowballed into other activities and became out of control.”

Flannery warned Scott if he violates any portion of his probation he’ll go to prison for 18 months. He admonished the Mason resident for his actions and said the only reason he went light on the sentence is because Scott is determined to repay the money quickly.

“You stole a large amount of money and there is certainly going to be consequences for that,” he said. “You can’t just steal money and pay it back and just forget about it. It doesn’t work that way. You’re not borrowing money, you’re stealing money. So you are going to be punished for it.”

Scott will be on work release while in jail. He is barred from ever again working in the banking or any other industry that handles money, Flannery said.

Prosecutors say Scott had a friend open three accounts — a line of credit, and checking and credit card accounts — to boost his sales record. He told the friend he had closed the accounts, and repaid a $5,000 line of credit loan the friend took out and gave to him. He allegedly altered some numbers on the accounts but kept the friend’s name on the accounts.

Scott worked at the bank between September 2008 and November 2010. Prosecutors said between April 2009 and August 2011 he made 129 Internet transactions, 233 ATM transactions, 28 credit card purchases and wrote two checks, one for $300 and another for $100.

Prosecutor David Fornshell said he would have liked Scott to spend more time behind bars.

“We would like to have seen more hard time,” he said. “But the trend of long terms of probation plus restitution is becoming the norm with non-violent theft offenses.”

Elter said he believes his client’s remorse eased the penalty.

“I think there were several times during this that if he had been able to, in his mind, he would have stopped it, admitted it and dealt with it at that point,” Elter said. “I think that’s part of the reason Judge Flannery gave him the sentence he did.”