POTTSVILLE, Pa. (AP) — A Pennsylvania restaurant owner must spend 18 months to five years in prison for stealing $315,000 from a mentally disabled couple.

Schuylkill (SKOOL'-kil) County prosecutors believe 46-year-old Alfonso Picone spent the cash receipts from his La Dolce Casa restaurant to feed a gambling addiction, then stole from the couple to replenish those funds.

The restaurant is based in Tamaqua, whose residents turned out in force at Picone’s Monday sentencing, describing him as a charitable pillar of the community.

Picone’s attorney, Ross Miller, asked the judge to consider house arrest or probation saying, “What happens to Mr. Picone happens to Tamaqua.”

But Deputy Attorney General Michelle Laucella said Picone’s crimes against the elderly couple were “cold and calculated.”

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The name of the defense attorney has been corrected to Ross Miller, instead of Ross Martin.

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