Timothy Peter Janusz, a former lawyer, former accountant and convicted felon, was sent to prison for 30 more years yesterday for once again stealing money from the elderly.

Janusz, 48, tearfully told Circuit Judge Steven Alm that he was "ashamed and appalled" by his conduct and asked the judge to be merciful and sentence him to no more than 10 years behind bars.

He said he had "hit bottom" in his life. "I lost my wife, I threw away my education, my training (because) I was prideful and selfish," he said.

City Deputy Prosecutor Christopher Van Marter said Janusz preyed on the elderly, among the "most vulnerable and trusting" members of society.

Janusz showed a "predatory pattern of criminal conduct toward elderly victims" and would do it again unless he is locked away for a long time, Van Marter said.

Alm agreed, sentencing Janusz to serve three consecutive 10-year terms in prison. "Whatever else you are, you are a con man," Alm told Janusz.

"Hopefully you've ripped off your last senior citizen," the judge said.

Janusz pleaded guilty in September to defrauding the Salvation Army and four elderly donors who wanted to give the charity more than $300,000.

The charity hired him in 2003 as the local director of planned giving, but officials said they didn't learn until 2006 that Janusz had been convicted in Colorado in 1996 of federal fraud charges involving $2.2 million belonging to an 88-year-old couple.

He was arrested here in April 2006 and later charged with a series of Hawai'i offenses, including attempted fraud of a 77-year-old man who was trying to give $150,000 to the Salvation Army.

Janusz admitted to that offense and also pleaded guilty to defrauding two Honolulu women and a Big Island man of $141,000, and defrauding the Salvation Army of more than $10,000 in mileage expenses.

In addition to the prison sentence, Alm yesterday ordered Janusz to pay restitution of about $44,000.

In the earlier Colorado case, Janusz was sentenced to five years in prison and ordered to pay $184,000 in restitution.

He escaped from a federal prison camp in South Dakota and fled to the Netherlands Antilles in the Caribbean, where he was captured and returned to this country to finish his prison sentence.

After his release, he brought his family, including six children, to Hawai'i and found employment at the Salvation Army.

Van Marter said yesterday that federal officials in South Dakota still intend to prosecute Janusz on an escape charge.

Salvation Army officials said that when Janusz was hired here, the charity did not perform background checks on prospective employees except those who work with children, but changed that policy after discovering Janusz's criminal past.

Reach Jim Dooley at jdooley@honoluluadvertiser.com.