Kansas City, Mo. ? A federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a former employee of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to four years probation for using her computer access at work to promote prostitution.

Candice Smith, 44, of Blue Springs, pleaded guilty in July to unauthorized computer intrusion. Her sentence includes four months of home detention.

As part of her plea, Smith admitted making illegal inquiries into the LexisNexis database, which was available to her in her job as a payment recovery specialist for the Center for Medicaid Services, an agency of the Department of Health and Human Services.

LexisNexis provides a database that includes credit history and driver’s license information to certain private and government agencies.

According to prosecutors, Smith had been working as a prostitute and used information from LexisNexis to help her avoid arrest and prosecution.