A former Beeville bank officer has been sentenced to federal prison for embezzlement, authorities reported Thursday.

Leslie Woodside Dial, 46, a former senior vice president of both Commercial State Bank in Sinton and State Bank and Trust in Beeville, was sentenced to 33 months in prison and ordered to repay the money she took, Acting United States Attorney Tim Johnson announced.

Dial pleaded guilty to embezzlement by a bank officer in August.

Chief United States District Judge Hayden Head sentenced Dial to five years of probation upon her release from prison.

Head also ordered Dial to pay more than $285,000 in restitution.

During a hearing in August, Dial confessed that while she was employed as a senior vice president of Commercial State Bank and State Bank and Trust, she stole more than $285,000 from the two banks, Johnson reported in a news release issued Thursday.

“During an audit in June 2005, each bank began to suspect theft and embezzlement by Dial,” Johnson explained. “External auditors were brought in and they were able to identify a total of 536 unauthorized deposits made into nine separate accounts held by the defendant and members of her immediate family.”

Johnson said these deposits were posted on 228 separate dates between November 1997 and February 2005.

“After being promoted to senior vice president on Jan. 1, 2000, a total of $287,045.72 was embezzled from the two banks,” he added.

Of that amount, $180,873.37 was transferred from State Bank and Trust and $106,172.35 was transferred from Commercial State Bank, Johnson reported.

He said Dial was able to embezzle the funds by making unauthorized deposits and offsetting these deposits with charges to various internal accounts used by the banks during routine transfers of funds.

“These unauthorized clearing account transactions were processed in the same manner as legitimate transfers between the banks for shared expenses such as payroll for shared employees and other shared costs,” Johnson explained.

Following the discovery of the theft, both Commercial State Bank and State Bank and Trust verified that no depositor’s accounts were affected, he said.

The case was investigated by agents from the Internal Revenue Service, FBI and the Federal Deposit Insurance Cooperation. The case was prosecuted by Assistant United States Attorney Robert D. Thorpe Jr.