NEW YORK, (Reuters) – Former New York Police  Commissioner Bernard Kerik, once selected to the U.S.  Department of Homeland Security, was sentenced yesterday to  four years in prison for tax evasion and lying to White House  officials.

Kerik, 54, who as head of the city’s police worked closely  with former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani at the time of the Sept. 11,  2001 attacks, pleaded guilty to the federal charges in  November.

“I know I must be punished. Please allow me to return to my  wife and two little girls as soon as possible to start a new  path,” Kerik said during sentencing, according to local media.

A former police detective, and once Giuliani’s driver,  Kerik headed the New York City jail system before taking charge  of the police department in 2000.

His career began to unravel during background checks when  President George W. Bush nominated him in 2004 to become  Secretary of Homeland Security.

Kerik withdrew, but his legal troubles later embarrassed  Giuliani in his unsuccessful bid for the 2008 Republican  presidential nomination.

Along with pleading guilty to lying and evading taxes,  Kerik admitted receiving apartment renovations from a  construction firm suspected of organized crime ties and helping  the company win city contracts.

“It is a very sad day when the former commissioner of the  greatest police department in the world is sentenced to prison  for base criminal conduct,” U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara said in  a statement.

“Today’s sentencing of Bernard Kerik is one of the most  powerful recent reminders that no one in this country is above  the law.”

The four-year sentence imposed by Judge Stephen Robinson in  U.S. District Court in White Plains, New York exceeded the  sentencing guidelines of less than three years, as laid out in  Kerik’s plea deal, but fell far short of the maximum possible  term of 61 years.

Kerik will remain out on bail, under house arrest and  wearing an electronic ankle monitor, until he begins his term  on May 17.