A former speaker of the New Brunswick Legislative Assembly and longtime Liberal MLA has been sentenced to one year of house arrest after changing his plea to guilty of fraud over $5,000.

Frank Branch will, however, be allowed to attend church every morning, the Court of Queen's Bench judge ruled Thursday in Moncton.

Branch, 68, was also given two years of probation and ordered to pay the North Shore Forest Products Marketing Board $15,000 in restitution.

The Crown and defence had requested that the other four charges against Branch be stayed, including two counts of extortion against two employees of the marketing board, breach of trust against the province, and another fraud over $5,000 charge against the province.

Chief Justice David Smith accepted the recommendation and commented that Branch is not likely to re-offend.

"Some people might think that the sentence is a little light," defence lawyer Gilles Lemieux told reporters outside the courtroom.

"And I said, it's been a very long and tough process for everybody and anybody who thinks he got away lightly hasn't lived through what this man has lived through, the living hell he's gone through in the last seven years," Lemieux said.

"It's a great load off the family, off Mr. Branch himself. It also puts an end to long, protracted, complicated civil actions along with the criminal file, so it's a good day for everybody," he said.

"It's a day where the hatchet is buried."

The charges, all laid in March 2009, stem from alleged wrongdoings while Branch was the MLA for Nepisiguit, and general manager of the North Shore Forest Products Marketing Board.

Had maintained innocence

Branch had maintained his innocence since the allegations against him surfaced in 2005.

In April 2006, during a dramatic 10-minute address on the floor of the legislature, he alleged he was framed.

He said an employee of the marketing board had come to him and said he'd doctored Branch's expense receipts to create the perception of improprieties.

Branch said the employee – whom he would not name – gave him a deadline to resign, or be ruined publicly.

Branch also implicated former premier Bernard Lord and forest products board chairman Bernard Valcourt, a former leader of the provincial Progressive Conservative party.

He filed a half-million-dollar wrongful dismissal suit against the board and in 2009, he had asked the Court of Queen's Bench to cover the estimated $400,000 in legal bills he anticipated for his trial.

"If Mr. Branch hadn't tried to do two jobs at once, he might not have been in this situation," his lawyer told reporters.

"The man has put in 35 years in service of his community. That in and of itself in a small community, where people knock on your door on Sunday mornings and on Saturday nights and every night of the week and they need this and they need that and he's, for 35 years, he's put up with that and he's done it," said Lemieux.

"And none of these problems would be …Well, I say that all of these problems started when he started wearing two hats."

Complaint triggered investigation

Bathurst city police, who initiated the charges following a lengthy investigation, allege the wrongdoing occurred between 1999 and 2005.

Their investigation began after a complaint was registered.

Branch was suspended from the marketing board in October 2005, and fired in March 2006.

He resigned from the Liberal caucus in January 2006 to sit as an Independent and did not run in the provincial election that year.

Branch served as the Liberal MLA for the northern riding of Nepisiguit for more than 27 years.

During his last session in the house, Branch was the longest-sitting politician in the legislature.

Branch served as the manager of the North Shore Forest Products Marketing Board from 1999 to 2005.