COLUMBUS (AP) — The former mayor of a central Ohio village has been sentenced to a month in jail for theft in office.

Former Mount Sterling Mayor Charles Neff also was sentenced Monday to three years of probation and was ordered to pay nearly $10,000 in restitution.

The state auditor says Neff approved excessive payouts for employee sick time and vacation pay that weren’t allowed or earned. Authorities also say Neff failed to credit 25 percent of village income tax revenue to the village’s capital improvement fund as locally required.

Neff was also convicted of falsification and dereliction of duty.

A defense attorney has said that Neff maintains his innocence and was manipulated by another administrator now imprisoned for stealing village funds.

Mount Sterling is about 24 miles southwest of Columbus.