Kenneth Earle Karlson, 56, Minot, was sentenced on Tuesday to three years in prison, all suspended, and three years of supervised probation for stealing a JCB Model 506C telehandler and selling it without the permission of the owner in 2017.

Judge Todd Cresap also ordered Karlson to pay restitution of $24,581.25 in full within the next three weeks. If he fails to pay it, Cresap said he will strongly suggest that Karlson’s probation officer file to revoke his probation and Karlson could then be facing the full 10 year sentence for the Class B felony theft of property charge.

Karlson has also been ordered to pay $775 in court costs.

The victim testified during a hearing on Tuesday that Karlson caused him serious financial harm by stealing the telehandler.

According to court documents, the owner brought the telehandler to Karlson to be serviced in January 2015. Karlson claimed he was unable to work on it and took it to Keller Paving, where it sat. At some point the telehandler was sold for $17,000 and was loaded onto a semi and taken away. People at Keller Paving told the owner that they had been under the impression that Karlson owned the telehandler.

Karlson had claimed that he thought he had permission to sell the equipment and had planned to use the money to pay for insurance for trucks for a trucking company he planned to start with the owner of the telehandler. The owner of the telehandler disputed that there were ever such plans during his testimony on Tuesday. Karlson never produced any documentation for the company and police never found records for it.

Karlson has now started another trucking business with someone else, his lawyer said in court on Tuesday.