He must also pay $50,000 (�33,000) to his former employer, which sacked him after the Oscars disappeared from a warehouse near Los Angeles in March.

Lawrence Ledent at an earlier hearing

The money will compensate Ohio-based Roadway Express for the reward money it paid to salvage worker Willie Fulgear, who found all but three of the statuettes in a rubbish bin a week before the ceremony.

He said he found the Oscars still wrapped in plastics and individual white boxes.

"I found a lot of white stuff out there which were a lot of Styrofoam boxes and I picked one up and busted it open - Oscar!"

Fulgear was given a rapturous reception at the awards ceremony on 26 March - however, he told a local radio station in June that much of the reward money had been stolen from his flat.

Ledent, who has been free on bail, will begin serving his sentence on 8 August.

He must also pay the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences $1,050 (�695) to compensate it for the three statuettes which are still missing.

Another man had been linked to the theft, but prosecutors decided not to file charges, citing a lack of evidence.