PANAMA CITY — A former church bookkeeper has pleaded to forging 138 church checks worth $38,849 and has been sentenced to 20 years of probation, according to court records.
Kelli Elane Space, 38, pleaded no contest to 35 of the 277 charges against her after forging and passing 138 church checks from Parker United Methodist Church. Parker Police arrested her in April on charges she cut and cashed $38,849 in checks over six months. Space, a former bookkeeper of the church, was sentenced to 20 consecutive years of probation Monday, according to court documents.
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Between October 2013 and March of this year, Space printed 138 church checks with her name affixed in the “pay to the order” portion. She then cashed the checks at Tyndall Federal Credit Union and Wal-Mart without permission from the church, Parker Police reported.
“It should be noted these offenses were caught on video both at Wal-Mart and the Tyndall Federal Credit Union,” Parker Police Detective Aaron Wilson wrote in his report.
Court records indicated Space will appeal her sentence.