A Salisbury man who masterminded a tax fraud scheme to support his drug habit was sentenced yesterday by an Anne Arundel County Circuit judge to seven years in prison, the limit under his plea agreement.

Bruce E. White, 42, prepared more than 300 fake Maryland income tax returns over three years, winning $63,000 in refunds by making phony W-2 forms, claiming wages and withholding sums for unemployed friends.

About two-thirds of his filings were denied when a comptroller's office worker became suspicious about similar spelling errors and handwriting in a number of tax returns from the Eastern Shore.

But the state paid on one-third of them, and White told investigators he trained other people to do it.

Judge Ronald Silkworth also ordered White to make $63,000 in restitution to the state and placed him on five years' probation.

White is facing federal tax charges and is under investigation in Delaware.