Chiropractor Matthew Nicastro wept Tuesday as he begged a Cumberland County judge not to send him to prison for a $340,000 insurance fraud that Nicastro claimed resulted from negligent bookkeeping.

"I did not intend to victimize anyone," he told Judge Skip Ebert.

Nicastro, 36, of Boiling Springs, even had two patients, one a high school principal, testify about how well he treated them.

He did squeeze some leniency from Ebert.

Although the prosecution demanded a 6-month prison term, Ebert sentenced Nicastro to 4 to 23 months in county prison and fined him $1,500 on charges of insurance fraud and theft by deception.

"There is no way I can look at this amount of money and say it's a probationary sentence," Ebert said.

Nicastro, who operated the Nicastro Chiropractic Clinic in South Middleton Twp., pleaded no contest to the theft and fraud counts in July for what authorities said was a billing scam. Investigators said Nicastro billed insurers multiple times for the same services, billed for work he didn't perform and charged for ineligible work done by massage therapists.

Defense attorney Heidi F. Eakin said Nicastro has paid more than $318,000 in restitution to Highmark Blue Shield and roughly $22,000 to Erie Insurance. Eakin said she expects the state to suspend indefinitely his license to practice.