Brenda Oates, who was an executive assistant in a branch of the Environment Department before she was fired, was sentenced Friday to 15 months behind bars for fraud and ordered to repay almost $434,000 to taxpayers.

"I think she was prepared right from the beginning - when she admitted her guilt - for the fact that she was going to go to jail," said defence lawyer Cameron McCannell.

Still, Oates was "pretty emotionally devastated" by the decision, McCannell said.

"She was hoping to get a conditional sentence."

Oates, 50, looked straight ahead and appeared to fight back tears as she was handcuffed and led out of the courtroom. Her husband and a daughter dabbed at their eyes with tissues.

Court heard that between April 1999 and December 2004 Oates used her position to systematically bilk the government using false invoices and expense claim forms.

She created false vendors for the invoices. At times, she used the names of relatives and non-profit charitable groups that she did work for on the forms.

In February, Oates pleaded guilty to defrauding the Saskatchewan government.

"To say this was a well-planned and well-executed crime is an understatement," Justice Ellen Gunn said in her decision.

"She was in a position of trust with her employer, in essence the government of Saskatchewan, and she was in a position of trust in the many charitable and community organizations she used to launder the moneys in question.

"There can be no question that she appreciated the seriousness of what she was doing and yet she persisted," said Gunn.

There is also no question as to where the money went.

A spread sheet police compiled of her gambling activities showed that Oates made almost daily trips to the casino. She lost about $600,000 from April 1999 to December 2004, the records show.

A psychologist's letter entered by the defence described her as a pathological gambler whose addiction was "severe and entirely out of control." Despite that, she was also deemed a low risk to reoffend.

Gunn said she accepted that Oates had a gambling problem and that the money was used to support her habit.

"This addiction will diminish her responsibility somewhat ... but it cannot unduly limit her personal responsibility for her actions," said the judge, who noted that Oates had a previous fraud conviction in 1986.

She was given two years of probation and ordered to pay $7,000 in restitution to a Regina clothing store in that case. The government has said it didn't know about the previous conviction when it hired her.

As part of her sentence, Oates must also receive counselling for her addiction. Oates has already given $200,000 to the court.

Last August, her sister, Linda Billey of Edmonton, was ordered to pay $26,600 after pleading guilty to a related charge of fraud over $5,000.

The Crown had argued that Oates should receive a three-year sentence without restitution, or a sentence of 18 months to two years less a day if the money was paid back. Prosecutor Greg Fellinger said the penalty handed down was appropriate.

Fellinger said he hoped it would discourage others from committing such crimes.

"It's a sentence that goes some distance to thwarting those people and perhaps sending the message that they'll be subject to a similar sentence if and when they're detected and prosecuted," he said outside the courthouse.

McCannell said the sentence probably won't be appealed.

"In some ways I think Brenda's better off receiving a jail sentence," McCannell said. "It's quicker, cleaner and gives more of a sense of having paid for her crime."