The former Summerside city councillor who pleaded guilty to stealing thousands of dollars from a veterans group stood in a P.E.I. provincial courtroom Tuesday and apologized before a judge and about a dozen victims and their supporters.

"Your Honour, I am truly sorry," Barb Gallant said, her voice shaking. "Veterans, community and … I'm just truly sorry."

During Gallant's sentencing hearing in Summerside, the public heard for the first time the reasons she felt compelled to make 58 fraudulent tra…