A Manhattan businessman and his wife who shelled out big bucks to boost their daughter’s college admissions scores were sentenced to a month behind bars on Tuesday.

Greg Abbott, the 68-year-old founder of food and drink distribution company International Dispensing Corp., and his spouse, former Family Circle magazine editor Marcia Abbott, 59, copped to paying $125,000 to fudge their daughter’s SAT and ACT scores as part of the nationwide college admissions scandal.

The couple was trying to get their teen into Duke University, her mom’s alma mater, prosecutors said.

Hoping to dodge time in the slammer, the pair expressed regrets about their actions to Boston federal Judge Indira Talwani on Tuesday, with Greg admitting, “I knew my daughter was getting some help that was outside the rules.”

Prosecutors had sought eight months behind bars for each, along with a total fine of at least $80,000.

The judge went easy on the parents in terms of prison time, while ordering them to pay a total $90,000 fine as well as to perform 250 hours of community service apiece.

The defendants were among a slew of deep-pocketed parents, including TV actresses Felicity Huffman and Lori Loughlin, caught up in the scandal.

The Abbotts were the only family to take part in the scam twice — first shelling out $50,000 in bribes to rig their daughter’s ACT exam answers and then paying $75,000 to fix her SAT scores.

As a result, the girl scored a perfect 800 on the SAT math exam and 710 on its literature test, and a near-perfect 35 out of 36 on the ACT.

The teen wouldn’t have gotten near those scores on her own, the feds said. Without the illicit help, she would have gotten a 23 on the ACT, according to court papers.

The Abbotts said they kept their scheme hidden from their daughter, telling the judge they were trying to help her because she suffered from Lyme disease — and not because they saw college as a status symbol.

“My husband and I were both motivated by good intentions . . . but this does not excuse our actions,” Marcia Abbott said in court.

The couple became the sixth and seventh parents to be sentenced in the “Operation Varsity Blues” case.

Huffman got 14 days behind bars last month.

Prosecutors have said they’ll recommend longer prison sentences for “Full House” actress Loughlin and other parents contesting the charges against them.

With Post wires