The defense attorney called it "absolutely stupid."
The Lancaster County Court judge called it "pure greed."
Melissa Marie O'Donnell was working at a local car dealership when prosecutors said she wrote more than $140,000 worth of company checks to pay off her personal credit card debt.
In court on Wednesday, O'Donnell apologized, telling Judge Howard Knisely that she and her unemployed fiancé owed taxes they could not pay.
"I panicked and took the path of least resistance," O'Donnell said. "It's not all just stuff that I bought."
Defense attorney David Dye said his client is well-educated and had a good-paying job and no prior criminal record, but she did something "absolutely stupid."
Knisely had a different interpretation of the incident.
"This was pure greed," Knisely said, "stealing from an employer who was already paying you $97,000 a year."
Knisely sentenced O'Donnell to 6 to 23 months in county prison, followed by 5 years of probation.
Although she has paid some restitution, Knisely ordered her to pay the remaining $115,172 she owes.
Knisely rejected O'Donnell's request for house arrest and agreed only to delay the start of sentence until Friday.
The judge noted that O'Donnell, who was working as an accountant for the Faulkner car dealership companies in Dauphin and Lancaster counties, made payments to her creditors by writing corporate checks in amounts ranging from $5,000 to $26,000.
"It only stopped," Knisely said, when one of the creditors questioned the use of corporate checks and contacted Faulkner officials.
"I am extremely embarrassed and ashamed of my actions," said O'Donnell, 30, of Philadelphia.
"This has been quite the awakening experience for me," she said.
"I want to move on from this experience and become a productive member of society," she said.
"Beyond that," Knisely told O'Donnell, "you've become a criminal."
Assistant District Attorney Charles Rieck IV noted that O'Donnell pleaded guilty to the seven counts of theft in January and had received probation for similar charges in Dauphin County.
Also in court on Wednesday, two other women were sentenced by President Judge Joseph Madenspacher:
• Dana Leigh Schelling, 23, of East Hempfield Township, was placed on nine months of house arrest and five years of probation for a series of burglaries of several homes in 2007.
She was ordered to perform 200 hours of community service and pay $1,520 restitution.
Schelling tearfully apologized for her actions, telling Madenspacher, "I'm not the girl I was two years ago."
"I am terribly sorry," Schelling said. "I can't even fathom what I did or what I was thinking."
Schelling's father told the judge that his teenage daughter became addicted to prescription drugs through her friends in high school.
It was with one of those high school friends, Amanda Ziedonis, the defendant told the judge, that she committed crimes to buy more drugs.
In November 2007, the two young women were caught by the owners of a home in School Lane Hills. Ziedonis was tackled and held for police, but Schelling escaped. She turned herself in the following day.
Defense attorney Christopher Lyden told the judge that since Schelling's arrest, she has completed drug treatment, attends support groups daily, is working full time and has her own apartment.
Lyden said when Schelling was arrested "she spilled the beans right away," giving the court insight into her "complete lack of sophistication."
She pleaded guilty earlier to three counts of burglary, two counts of theft, five counts of conspiracy and a drug possession charge.
"I'm going to go out on a limb for you," Madenspacher told the tearful young woman, "but you only get one chance. If you violate your probation, you're going to be keeping Amanda company in state prison."
Ziedonis was sentenced to 8 to 26 years in state prison for 19 burglaries, an armed robbery and other offenses.
• Nicole Lynn Knaub, 23, of Coatesville, was sentenced to 15 days to one year in prison for two counts of drunken driving.
Knaub nearly struck a utility pole the first time she was arrested, prosecutors said, having a blood alcohol content of 0.18 percent.
The second time, the judge was told, Knaub drove off the road twice and had open containers of alcohol in her car. Her blood alcohol content was 0.16 percent.
In Pennsylvania, the legal blood alcohol limit is 0.08 percent.
Madenspacher told Knaub he took into consideration the fact that she is now seven months pregnant, but he felt it was important that she "learn what would happen to you if you come back with a third," drunken driving arrest.