By Anne Emerson From ABC News4

BERKELEY COUNTY, S.C. (WCIV) — Sixteen years.

That’s how much time the disgraced Berkeley County Schools ex-CFO Brantley Thomas will spend in prison for stealing money from the district.

Thomas will also have to repay $1.4 million of the money he stole.

Thomas pleaded guilty to 37 counts of embezzlement and related charges.

The state prosecutor was extremely specific as he asked the judge to accept the negotiated plea deal today at the Dorchester County courthouse.

He said he wanted to be sure Thomas received 16 years in total behind bars, one year for each year he stole money from his trusted employers, a long line of misdeeds that date back years.

And that’s just the stolen money that investigators could trace, there could be more, said the prosecutor.

Thomas, 62, is already serving five years in federal prison for related corruption charges.

The federal sentence was handed down last month.

Today the prosecutor told the packed courtroom how Thomas stole the money from the school district.

He said Thomas intercepted the schools’ checks and had them rerouted to his personal bank accounts.

Thomas also pleaded guilty to stealing from a family friends’ business after he was already charged with embezzling from the schools.

Berkleley County School District Counsel Josh Whitley said, “I think it was an eye opener for all of us. What you saw was one man who manipulated every system he could touch to benefit himself and benefit his family and zero regard for children and those who had less resources for his own personal gain.”

“This man betrayed children, he betrayed his community, his friends, his colleagues who trusted him,” said Berkeley County Schools Superintendent Dr. Eddie Ingram.

To give the judge a sense of the egregious nature of Thomas’ crime, he told the court about a $25,000 family trip to the Cayman Islands that Thomas paid for by stolen school funds.

Thomas said he was remorseful and apologetic for his actions over the years, yet the prosecutor said Thomas did not contribute at all to the discovery of the evidence against him.

For more on this story and video go to; https://abcnews4.com/news/local/disgraced-former-berkeley-county-cfo-pleads-guilty-gets-16-year-sentence