San Diego

A San Diego financial planner who embezzled $200,000 from an elderly couple was sentenced Friday to two years in state prison.

Isaac Cubillos, 39, was given the term after he pleaded guilty on Jan. 29 to two counts of grand theft. “Probation is not an option. He’s going to state prison,” said San Diego Superior Court Judge John Thompson.

Deputy Dist. Atty. Sally Williams had urged the maximum four-year term, but Thompson said he felt bound by a plea bargain in limiting the sentence to two years.

Thompson initially was going to order Cubillos to pay more than $200,000 in restitution to Cecil and Modina Burbank, a retired couple in their 80’s. But Cubillos’ attorney, Peter Liss, said the embezzlement occurred in 1988, and a state law change since then prohibited prison inmates from being ordered to pay more than $10,000.

The judge ordered Cubillos, who has been sued for damages, to submit to the civil process in any related lawsuit. He was not fined.

Cubillos, who had no prior criminal record, ran a firm named Financial Planning Services, but its only location was a post office box, according to Williams.

He met the elderly couple through another investment firm where he had once worked.

Another victim, Betty Biddolph, of La Jolla, told the judge Cubillos owes her $26,000. Grand theft charges on Biddolph’s loss were dismissed in a plea bargain.