PORTLAND, Maine — An Auburn woman was sentenced Monday in U.S. District Court to two years of probation for stealing more than $4,000 in money orders and cash while working in 2014 as a relief postmaster, according to the U.S. attorney’s office.
Jayme Temoke, 30, pleaded guilty in February to one count of misappropriation of postal funds.
She also was ordered to pay more than $4,300 in restitution.
Temoke worked at the West Poland Post Office. She embezzled the money between June 5 and July 21, 2014, according to the prosecution version of events to which she pleaded guilty.
Her misappropriation of funds was uncovered by a national monitoring program that detects when money orders are redeemed before being reported sold, the court document said.
“In Temoke’s case, that program detected 61 money orders being redeemed while only 50 had been reported sold,” the prosecution version said.
Temoke told investigators that she was a single mother with three children and started taking the money intending to repay it because she was having financial difficulties.
She faced up to 10 years in federal prison and a fine of up to $250,000.