An ex-state trooper who patroled Westchester and Rockland highways was ordered to serve 50 hours of community service for sending phony tickets to a Brooklyn man as revenge for an off-duty dispute.

Lester C. Hooper, formerly of the Troop T barracks in Tarrytown, was sentenced in state Supreme Court yesterday on one misdemeanor count of official misconduct.

He was to serve three years’ probation as part of a plea deal, but his lawyer argued for a conditional discharge, saying Hooper already lost his job and paid $600 in restitution to Derrick Perry, the target of his false ticket blitz.

“Mr. Hooper is a good man,” defense lawyer Jeffrey P. Chartier said. “This is a man who had a lapse in judgment.”

Hooper, 33, resigned from the force as part of the plea and can never return to law enforcement. He also must have no contact whatsoever with Perry through June 16, 2014.

In court, Hooper apologized for his actions, saying he violated the law he swore to uphold.

“I’m truly sorry,” he said. “I hope the experience of the last six months allows me to move forward and be a productive citizen.”

Hooper, a Brooklyn resident, was indicted in December for issuing speeding tickets and other traffic infractions to Perry, a man he had never stopped on the road.

Hooper’s defense team said Perry had insulted Hooper’s wife and used offensive language toward her, which Perry has denied.

Perry said Hooper wrote the tickets to get back at him after he refused to move his parked truck from a Brooklyn street in January 2008. He said Hooper, who was off duty and not in uniform, flashed his badge and wrote down his license plate number.

Perry said he then began getting tickets accusing him of speeding in Harrison, Greenburgh and White Plains. Hooper admitted that he gave Perry a fake ticket on Jan. 28, 2008, for driving 80 mph and failing to signal.

Hooper had been a trooper since 2005. He patroled interstates 287, 87 and 95.

(Source: The Journal News)