A 45-year-old woman who admitted embezzling nearly $30,000 from the U.S. Department of Agriculture must repay the money, spend six months on house arrest and five years on probation.

That's the sentence for Dauline McGill handed down Wednesday by U.S. District Judge A.J. McNamara.

McGill, who now lives in Heidelberg, Miss., lived in New Orleans when she worked for the USDA National Finance Center as a supervising accounting technician for the division that collects and pays bills for other federal agencies.

Her job included issuing refund checks, and she issued a little more than $29,759 worth to herself between April 2004 and March 2005.

Prosecutors say an audit turned up the thefts and she confessed.
McGill pleaded guilty in October to one count of embezzlement.