A man who had spent time behind bars on multiple occasions for theft, embezzlement and forgery and was wanted in California and Florida for similar crimes was able to con his way into a job as a bookkeeper for a married couple in Hawaii and steal nearly $2.5 million from them.

A federal judge sentenced Frederick Scott Roswell Tuesday to 14 years and seven months in prison Tuesday for transferring stolen money out of state, using credit cards he obtained in somebody else’s name and mail fraud.

U.S. District Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi also ordered Roswell to pay back his victims $2,428,349.

Roswell apologized to his victims, Patricia and Thomas Coulson, who attended his sentencing, and said he committed all of his crimes during manic episodes when he refused to take his medication for bipolar disease.

"I don’t want to do this anymore. I’m tired. I’m not a bad person," Roswell said.

Patricia Coulson asked Kobayashi to give Roswell the maximum penalty.

"He’s a wolf in sheep’s clothes," she said.

Coulson said she and her husband met Roswell, who was using the alias Bruce Purcell, in 2005. She said Roswell told them he moved to Hawaii to be with his children, who were attending the University of Hawaii, after his wife died in an automobile accident.

Coulson said they hired Roswell as a bookkeeper after he presented them what turned out to be fake identification, fake documents and a fake resume with fake references. Coulson said she called the references — one of whom was Roswell’s son — and received glowing reports of "Bruce Purcell."

Within two years Roswell had stolen all of the Coulsons’ money, racked up charges on credit cards he had obtained in Thomas Coulson’s name and convinced a bank to give him money from the Coulsons’ pension benefit plan as a loan to Thomas Coulson.

"He felt comfortable every day lying to us and furnishing us false documents," Patricia Coulson said.

The Coulsons are suing the banks and credit card companies for the money transfers and credit charges Roswell made in their names.

Roswell’s 30-year history of embezzlement, fraud, forgery and theft began when he stole from his family’s business, according to the court’s pre-sentence investigation report. He has 10 prior felony convictions for which he served five separate prison terms of one to five years and probation. One of his convictions was for being a felon in possession of a loaded handgun.