Athol’s former city clerk, Sally R. Hansen, was sentenced to four years in federal prison Tuesday and ordered to pay nearly half a million dollars in restitution and fines for embezzling funds from the small North Idaho city. Among her crimes was writing phony city checks to herself and her husband and forging the mayor’s signature.

“The crime Ms. Hansen committed greatly affected the citizens and taxpayers of Athol,” said Wendy Olson, U.S. Attorney for Idaho. “Her repeated violations of her oath of office and responsibilities to be a good steward of the public trust have appropriately ended with a prison sentence.”

According to court documents, shortly after she started as Athol’s city clerk in 2009, Hansen began making fraudulent wire transfers between various city accounts, and then depositing funds into her own personal bank account by writing fraudulent city checks to herself and her husband. From 2009 to 2014, Hansen admitted to embezzling $417,879 from the city through the scheme.

Hansen was Athol's city clerk from May of 2009 until she was fired on June 18, 2014. Her duties included coordinating payroll and money transfers, paying vendors, and receiving money for water, sewer and tax payments. During that time, according to court documents, she wrote 227 fraudulent checks from the city to herself or her husband, in some cases forging the mayor's signature. She was initially charged with 15 counts of wire fraud; you can read our full story here at spokesman.com.