Man sent to prison for stealing from caddie college fund

BLOOMFIELD TOWNSHIP, (AP) — A man was sentenced to more than four years in prison Monday for stealing more than $600,000 from a college scholarship fund for caddies at one of Michigan’s most exclusive golf clubs.

“I can’t take it back. I was wrong. I was in a downward spiral and I lost my family,” Craig Maass told a judge. “It will never happen again.”

Maass, 62, has said he took money from the Oakland Hills Country Club fund while he was abusing alcohol and feeling distressed over a failed marriage. More than 100 checks totaling $633,000 were written over a 13-month period.

Maass supervised the fund and, like his parents, was a club member, The Detroit News reported.

“You were held in a position of trust and given access to funds intended to help children,” Judge Yasmine Poles said. “That is the most deplorable aspect of the whole thing."

Maas pleaded no contest to embezzlement. He will be eligible for parole after 51 months in custody.