SAN DIEGO - An insurance agent who tipped relatives and colleagues to buy stock in community banks was sentenced today to six months home confinement and ordered to pay a $20,000 fine.

Robert J. Gallivan, 71, pleaded guilty Nov. 30 in federal court to four counts of insider trading.

Gallivan, a Cardiff-by-the-Sea resident, admitted that that he used nonpublic information that four banks were either considering mergers or in advanced buyout talks when he bought stock in the banks himself and told others to do so as well.

Some of the purchases were made shortly before the acquisitions were announced, resulting in windfall gains to Gallivan and others of more than $62,000, according to court documents.

Through a sole proprietorship called Balanced Financial Planning, Gallivan sold insurance and other products to executives and directors of California community banks, according to court documents.

Because of his intimate knowledge of bank insurance, Gallivan's clients periodically consulted him about the financial impact of mergers and acquisitions on their executive insurance products.

Through those consultations, Gallivan learned that Valencia Bank & Trust and Monterey Bay Bank were planning to be acquired by other financial institutions before that information was publicly announced, court papers show.

Gallivan also used his longstanding relationship with a prominent investor in California community banks to learn that Sun Country Bank and Harbor National Bank were in advanced merger discussions.

Gallivan used that information to make unlawful trades in Valencia and Sun Country stock, and also told friends and relatives to purchase shares of Valencia, Monterey and Harbor, according to court documents.