EPHRATA - A Mattawa woman was sentenced to three months in jail and owes financial restitution to victims for reportedly stealing more than $150,000 while working as the billing manager for Saddle Mountain Wireless, an internet service provider.

Patricia Magana, 30, of Mattawa, received a three-month sentence last week in Grant County Superior Court for first-degree theft with the aggravating circumstance of being a major economic offense.

Superior Court Judge Evan Sperline said that because of the aggravating circumstance, the sentence could have been as long as 10 years in confinement.

The sentence came as part of a plea deal between deputy prosecutor Carole Highland and defense attorney Rafael Gonzales. Both sides agreed on a sentence recommendation of 90 days, which Judge Sperline followed.

Details regarding Magana's financial restitution responsibility were not immediately available. Sperline stated in court Tuesday Magana would likely be paying off the amount for the rest of her life.

Dean Christensen, general manager of Saddle Mountain Wireless, placed Magana on administrative leave on suspicion of theft from the company in July 2014, according to police records. Christensen reportedly told officers from the Grant County Sheriff's Office an accountant was trying to settle the company's books for the end of the month while Magana was on vacation.

At that time, Christensen and two accountants for the company reportedly thought they discovered the theft and how it had occurred.

Officers contacted Magana at her residence in Mattawa on July 22 about the theft, according to police records. Magana said it was a misunderstanding and she needed to fix the bookkeeping but then broke down and confessed to the theft, the sheriff's report said.

Magana told officers that she had begun taking money from the company several years prior and that she took different amounts at different times, according to the police report. She reportedly admitted to stealing more than $10,000 but would not commit to a higher amount than that.

In a statement filed with the GCSO, Christensen said he and the two accountants spent a month combing through receipt books to identify missing cash payments and system logs and reports to identify financial discrepancies between the system and bank statement records.

According to police records, Christensen and his team found discrepancies in the amount of $122,813.89, and he said they were convinced the amount taken was higher because they identified a number of deleted customer debits.

After going through past receipt books, Christensen reportedly said they found missing cash in the amount of $36,473 from payments where customers appeared in the store and paid cash for their monthly fees. Christensen reportedly said Magana would take the cash and apply the payments to future months so the system's financial records matched the bank deposit records.

Christensen also stated that in their investigation, they established Magana took most or all of the customer installation fees paid for in cash, which can exceed $200 on some new accounts, according to police records. Christensen reportedly stated they had not yet determined a total figure for those thefts.

Two of the company's employees explained to officers that they found Magana had posted accounts to the future to keep them current so service would continue to be provided, but monies were not documented as collected on any of those accounts, according to police records.

Christensen told police he and his team determined Magana had been editing payments and information since February 2012, according to police records. He reportedly said they were still working through the 2012 and 2013 years at the time the statement was filed.