A 33-year-old Kent woman was sentenced Friday in U.S. District Court in Seattle to 15 months in prison, three years of supervised release and $156,728 in restitution for conspiracy to commit theft of government funds and misuse of a social security number.

Janice Mann-Wilson pleaded guilty Sept. 9 to the charges.

Mann-Wilson, conspired with others to submit false information to the Washington Department of Social and Health Services when she worked as a financial services specialist for the agency in Ballard, according to a media release from the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Seattle.

Mann-Wilson trained a co-worker in the scheme to help collect more than $150,000 in payments for child care services that were never provided. The incidents occurred between May 2007 until Mann-Wilson was terminated in January 2008.

In essence, Man-Wilson entered false information into the data base indicating that child care services were being provided in order to obtain checks for the child care. In some instances, she used the social security numbers of children living out of state or used false social security numbers or created fictitious children in order to obtain government checks.

Mann-Wilson had the checks mailed to her sister’s home and then distributed them to the co-conspirators. These co-conspirators were paid for child care services they never provided and gave a share of the money to Mann-Wilson.

In some instances, Mann-Wilson and her co-conspirators claimed the child receiving care had “special needs” so the payment rate was increased. One conspirator was paid nearly $49,000 for care to non-existent children. All told $156,728 was embezzled in the scheme.

Special Assistant U.S. Attorney Johanna Vanderlee wrote in a sentencing memo that Mann-Wilson was the ringleader of the conspiracy.

“The public has a stake in knowing that government employees are not abusing their positions of trust and in knowing that public benefits intended for low-income, working families are properly used,” Vanderlee said.

The case came to light when there was a falling out between the co-conspirators, and an anonymous letter was sent to DSHS to alert investigators to the fraudulent scheme.

The Social Security Administration Office of Inspector General and the Seattle Police Department investigated the case.