REDWOOD CITY – A Hillsborough executive who pleaded no contest to possession of child pornography last year was sentenced Tuesday to three years of probation and six months in jail, prosecutors said Wednesday.

However, Gordon Bardet, 64, could avoid jail time if he is admitted to a work release program, according to the San Mateo County District Attorney’s Office.

Bardet, the chief executive officer of the San Mateo-based engineering and manufacturing company Pioneer Motor Bearing Co., first came under investigation by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security in 2011 based on an Internet discussion.

He was searched at San Francisco International Airport as he returned from the United Kingdom on Aug. 29 of that year.

Investigators found child pornography on his laptop and then searched his home and found other laptops and disks containing child pornography.

He did not have enough child pornography for federal prosecutors to bring charges, but the county district attorney’s office filed two felony counts of possession of child pornography.

Bardet reached a plea deal with prosecutors last November and pleaded no contest to one count in exchange for a sentence of no more than 16 months in prison.

In addition to the probation and possible jail sentence, Bardet must register as a sex offender for life, participate in a treatment program, submit to random polygraph testing and have no contact with children.

His defense attorneys were not immediately available for comment today.

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