AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF) – A former office manager for an Augusta medical practice has been sentenced to federal prison in an embezzlement case.

65-year-old Shirley Ann Taylor will serve 33 months in federal prison and has been ordered to pay $1,163,091.68 in restitution. She’s also been ordered to serve three years of supervised release after completion of her prison term.

Taylor was reportedly employed at an unnamed Augusta medical practice from 2006 to 2020 as an office & payroll manager.

Court documents state that in 2006, Taylor began stealing from her employer “by inflating her own pay and writing unauthorized company checks which she deposited in her own account or used to pay her mortgage.”

The discrepancies were finally noticed in 2020 by a new office manager, noted to amount to $1.2 million.

In her guilty plea, Taylor took responsibility for stealing a minimum of $550,000.

“Shirley Ann Taylor violated the trust of her employer and fellow employees to enrich herself at the company’s expense,” said Acting U.S. Attorney David H. Estes. “Thanks to the vigilance of a fellow employee, she’s now being held accountable for her thefts.”

“Taylor threw away an important position in a company that entrusted her by stealing money she didn’t deserve,” said Chris Hacker, Special Agent in Charge of FBI Atlanta. “Now she is being held accountable for her actions, thanks the cooperative efforts from the company and our law enforcement partners.”