Kevin J. Love, a former lawyer with long-standing drinking and cocaine problems, was told Friday he faces a prison term of up to four years after he admitted violating terms of the probation he received months ago.

Love, 45, of Hamburg, pleaded guilty to violating orders from State Supreme Court Justice Russell P. Buscaglia concerning participation in the Buffalo City Court’s DWI Court program and the financing of court-ordered in-patient treatment.

Love admitted he had violated those probationary terms imposed when he was given a six-month local jail term but he insisted he didn’t do so intentionally.

After the judge conferred at the bench with prosecutor Bethany A. Solek and defense attorney Kenneth F. Case, Love conceded he had “knowingly” violated those terms.

Love has been in custody since last September following his two most recent drunken driving arrests.

Last fall, Love completed a month of court-ordered inpatient alcoholism treatment at the Tully Hill facility near Syracuse. The judge imposed a six-month local jail term followed by five years on court-supervised probation.

The judge Friday stressed that “financing” issues with the treatment program, including future treatment, played a major role in Love’s latest legal problems. Love’s “admission” to the probation violations were the legal equivalent of a guilty plea.

Love, who resigned from the legal profession last year to avoid automatic disbarment, was sent back to jail without bail pending his April 19 sentencing.

Case declined to comment on the particulars of the financing dispute.

Love had faced a possible prison term of up to 11 years and fines of up to $15,000 after pleading guilty following drunken driving arrests Aug. 2., 2008, on Camp Road in Hamburg, and striking another car on South Park Avenue this past Sept. 11.