A 45-year-old Missoula woman was sentenced Thursday to three years and eight months in a federal prison for embezzling more than $800,000 from the First National Bank of Montana.

Leslie Susan Stehr, who worked at the bank's Missoula branches as a teller for nine years, appeared for sentencing Thursday in U.S. District Court. She pleaded guilty in July to federal charges of embezzlement and tax evasion, and faced a maximum prison term of 35 years and a $1 million fine. Four other counts of income tax evasion were dismissed under a plea agreement.

As part of the sentence, Stehr will spend five years on probation following her release from prison, and must pay restitution in the amount of $1,015,374.

"This is an extremely serious offense," said U.S. District Judge Donald Molloy, who presided over the hearing. Molloy added that a period of incarceration is appropriate because it will deter others in the financial community from stealing.

"People in the banking industry pay close attention to what happens in these proceedings," he said. Stehr's case is a reminder that "in our capitalist society, greed motivates not only the people at the top, but also those people lower down in the financial and banking communities."

Andrew Nelson, a federal defender representing Stehr, asked Molloy to impose a strictly probationary sentence so his client could live as a productive citizen, working and repaying her debts. Stehr began work at a collections agency after bank officials found out about her stealing in February 2008.

Stehr started working at First National Bank in February 1999, and began embezzling money from the bank in November of the same year, according to court records. Her position as teller supervisor and vault supervisor allowed her to manipulate the bank's ledger to conceal the embezzling.

First National Bank conducted surprise vault counts on a regular basis, but did not discover Stehr's stealing because she adjusted the cash count every day. Between 1999 and 2008, Stehr stole approximately $803,000 in cash.

In an interview with law enforcement in February 2008, Stehr admitted stealing money from Missoula banks at both the Brooks Street and Higgins Avenue branches. Stehr said she stole $466,000 from the Brooks Street branch and $336,000 from the Higgins Avenue branch.

She initially took money from her teller window, but when the amounts became too high to go unnoticed she wrote false transfer tickets indicating that she had transferred money into the vault when she had actually pocketed the cash.

"She spent the money shopping, paying bills, buying lavish gifts for herself and her friends, and traveling," according to an offer of proof by the U.S. Attorney's Office.

She'll repay $785,221 to Travelers Insurance; $50,000 to First National Bank; and $180,153 to the Internal Revenue Service.

First National Bank has about 125 employees in 11 offices in Montana, with its corporate headquarters in Missoula. The bank has some $284 million in assets.

Stehr has a history of stealing from her employers, and was previously caught embezzling from a local bank and an atheltics shop.

"She has systematically stolen money from basically everyone she has worked for," Molloy said. "I'm not sure about her current job."

Stehr also has been convicted twice of drunken driving, and Molloy said she could attend a 500-hour residential drug treatment program while in prison.

Nelson asked that Stehr be allowed to self-report to prison, and requested that she serve her term at a penitentiary in northwestern Oregon so she can be nearer to her family in Montana. Molloy agreed to let Stehr self-report, and she assured the judge that she would do the responsible thing.

"I want to face what has happened, and I will face it," Stehr said.

Reporter Tristan Scott can be reached at 523-5264 or at tscott@missoulian.com.