A Jamestown woman and former postmaster who pleaded guilty in 2014 to misappropriation of postal funds is facing charges alleging she took more than $45,000 through forged checks from two Falconer businesses.

Donna L. Spencer, 57, was issued appearance tickets Tuesday on a host of felony charges following a months-long investigation by the Ellicott Police Department.

The investigation began last year when the owner of a business noticed company checks had gone missing. The checks were later tied to Spencer, who as an employee did not have authorization as a signer to cash funds from the accounts.

Ellicott police began looking into the forgery case, found to have begun in 2018. In all, it was discovered a “large sum of money was taken from two business accounts and one personal account over time from forged documents,” Ellicott police said in a news release.

The personal account was also connected to one of the businesses.

Spencer is scheduled to appear in Ellicott Town Court later this month for arraignment on charges of petit larceny; six counts of fourth-degree grand larceny, a class E felony; nine counts of third-degree grand larceny, a class D felony; and 16 counts of second-degree forgery, a class D felony.

Dan Leighton, an investigator with the Ellicott Police Department, said the funds were used by Spencer for “personal gain.”

In February 2014, Spencer pleaded guilty in U.S. federal court in Buffalo to misappropriation of postal funds by a postal service employee. As postmaster at the Frewsburg post office, the U.S. Attorney’s Office said Spencer accepted cash payments from USPS customers for the purchase of postage stamps. Instead of depositing the cash payments into the USPS register, Spencer reportedly kept the money.

She was an employee of the Frewsburg post office beginning in 1986, serving as postmaster from February 1999 to July 2013. An audit of the Frewsburg facility determined that $14,023.50 had been taken.

Spencer was sentenced in May 2014 to two years probation and ordered to pay restitution to the U.S. Postal Service.