PITTSBURGH - Minus much of her hair from chemotherapy treatments for cancer, Linda Gebert said she was sorry for her role in a former Butler County-based chop-shop operation that netted hundreds of thousands of dollars.

The 59-year-old woman and former school teacher, voice breaking at times, apologized to the victims she and husband, David Gebert, stole from and swindled over the years.

David Gebert is serving time in the South Dakota penitentiary in connection with the case. He was to be sentenced along with his wife on federal charges Monday, but his sentencing was postponed.

Prosecutors and investigators characterized Linda Gebert as a "minimal participant" in the criminal enterprise that spanned several states, but she said Monday that she was fessing up and taking responsibility.

"I want to get on with my life, even though I don't know how much more time I have left," she said, referring to her recurring cancer and other health problems.

She asked for leniency.

But U.S. District Judge Donetta Ambrose on Monday tossed aside a plea agreement that recommended no jail time, and Ambrose ordered Linda Gebert to spend 18 months in a federal cell.

"This is a very difficult case," Ambrose said. "But I don't think for a minute that Linda Gebert didn't know what was going on and didn't participate in everything. This is a very serious offense."

Gebert's attorney, Charles Porter of Pittsburgh, seemed stunned by the sentence. Even Assistant U.S. Attorney James Love admitted to surprise.

"We weren't expecting any jail time," Porter said. "We had hoped maybe home detention so Linda could get the medical attention she desperately needs."

"I thought she was going to walk out of here," Love conceded.

Linda Gebert and David "Cash" Gebert, 61, in 2007 admitted to running Dee Gee Motors and Cash Auto and Salvage, in the Sarver area, as a chop shop - primarily for stolen Harley-Davidson cycles and sport utility vehicles.

The couple acknowledged they swiped numerous motorcycles at biker rallies in South Dakota, Georgia and Florida, then stripped and sold the parts from their Buffalo Township home and businesses. Additionally, the Geberts admitted to laundering the money from their illegal sales, which topped more than $670,000, according to investigators.

Investigators have identified at least 98 victims and at least 84 vehicles stolen during the operation, which dated back to 1993. Prosecutors have pegged the net cost of the enterprise - based primarily on insurance payouts and other victims' losses - at $2.287 million.

David Gebert is serving a 20-year sentence in the South Dakota State Penitentiary in connection with the motorcycle and parts theft ring.

In exchange for his guilty plea on state charges, Linda Gebert and the couple's son, Justin Gebert, 29, escaped prosecution in South Dakota.

Judge Ambrose postponed David Gebert's federal sentencing to give his attorney more time to review new documents filed in the case.

The lucrative chop shop ended abruptly after David Gebert was arrested Aug. 4, 2003.

He was caught trying to ride off on someone else's $26,000 motorcycle from the annual motorcycle rally in Sturgis, S.D. He was armed with a handgun.

Police tracked the rest of the Gebert family to their campsite near Sturgis, where they found three more stolen motorcycles and parts.

In saddlebags on one of the bikes was a pistol equipped with a silencer. Linda Gebert's purse held another pistol.

Ambrose, before imposing Linda Gebert's sentence, said she was troubled that the Geberts were so heavily armed when arrested.

"All these firearms are a big concern to me," she told Love and Porter, not hiding her dissatisfaction with the plea agreement.

Love seemed to downplay Linda Gebert's role in the chop shop. Still, he described her as the "bookkeeper" of the enterprise.

"When a woman is in trouble in court," he told Ambrose, "99 percent of the time, it's because of the guy she's with."

He said prosecutors were also sympathetic to her health problems. The woman, according to court documents, suffers from severe arthritis, fibromyalgia, a degenerative lower spine condition and clinical depression.

In 2005, she was treated for breast cancer and has had numerous other surgeries including a hysterectomy. The cancer, once in remission, recently reappeared. Porter said his client, who had no previous criminal record, in April began participating in an experimental drug treatment program for the cancer.

Ambrose noted that, under federal sentencing guidelines, the standard range for Linda Gebert was 27 to 33 months in jail. Love declined to comment about the sentence, saying only the plea deal was for "advisory purposes" for the judge. The plea agreement prohibits Porter from appealing the sentence.

Ambrose also ordered Linda Gebert to pay $432,700 in restitution. The couple has already paid $350,000 toward that bill. The defendant will serve three years on probation after her release from prison.

Ambrose agreed to allow Linda Gebert to self-report to the still-to-be-determined federal prison facility. Love noted that she would be sent to a facility with a hospital that can treat her.

It will be about eight weeks before she begins her first day in jail, after a standard case review by Federal Bureau of Prison authorities. Prosecutors, meanwhile, also have a plea agreement with David Gebert. Authorities recommended he be sentenced to between 43 and 56 months in prison - the standard federal range.

But Love noted the judge could again throw out the deal and go as high as the statutory maximum - 35 years.

David Gebert is to be sentenced May 23.