A 35-year-old woman was sentenced on Monday to five years in prison and ordered to pay $25,000 in restitution after admitting that she pilfered nearly $140,000 from a Monmouth County ophthalmology office where she worked, Monmouth County Prosecutor Christopher J. Gramiccioni announced.

Sheryl Ward, of Grove Street in South Amboy, pleaded guilty in May before Monmouth County Superior Court Judge Ellen Torregrossa-O’Connor after an investigation showed that she processed more than 130 fraudulent customer transaction returns while employed as a contact lens technician for a Freehold-based ophthalmology group between August of 2016 and January of 2018. Ward stole precisely $139,171.50 by creating falsified credit card returns that were directly deposited into her personal checking account.

She had initially pleaded guilty to roughly (more than) $75,000 theft. The full investigation revealed the $139,171.50.

— Edited press release from the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office