Prison ordered for Ill. embezzlement

EAST ST. LOUIS -- A southwestern Illinois woman who federal prosecutors say stole $266,000 from her workplace and gambled almost all of it away has been ordered to spend two and a half years in prison.

Forty-year-old Mary Storer of Wood River pleaded guilty last September in federal court in East St. Louis to tax evasion charges and embezzlement from an employee benefit plan.

Federal prosecutors say the offenses took place while she worked as an office manager at Elk Heating and Cooling in Wood River. Storer had superiors sign stacks of checks for bills and give her blank checks for office supplies, which she made out to herself.

Prosecutors say Storer's gambling losses in 2007 exceeded $200,000.

Storer has been ordered to repay the company and to pay more than $76,000 to the Internal Revenue Service.