Kansas City, Kan. ? A Wellsville woman pleaded guilty Wednesday in federal court to forging more than $256,000 in checks drawn on her employer.

Catherine Zickel, 46, admitted that the crimes occurred from Oct. 31, 2003, to Aug. 28, 2006. She was a bookkeeper at the time for Dunco Inc., doing business as Niehoff/Dunco Heating and Cooling and Niehoff Heating & Air Conditioning in Lawrence.

Federal prosecutors said that on numerous occasions Zickel forged an owner’s signature on company checks to pay her personal credit card bills. She entered false billing information in the accounts payable records to conceal the forgeries, prosecutors said.

In one instance, Zickel placed a forged company check for $100.57 payable to Kohl’s in the U.S. mail for delivery to a Kohl’s payment center in Milwaukee.

Zickel will be sentenced May 5 on one count of mail fraud. She faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison. She has agreed to pay restitution amounting to $256,353.