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The former top assistant at the agency that oversees Utah's 911 system and most emergency communications in the state who used public money for a $1.2 million decadelong spending spree for herself and her family will serve up to 27 months in federal prison after she was sentenced Thursday on her guilty plea to wire fraud.

Patricia Nelson, 58, of Sandy, spent the money at retail stores and on trips, home improvements, and food and drinks on five agency credit cards. She also helped her daughter buy a $400,000 house that she's still helping pay the mortgage on.

The spending continued for a decade until a Utah Communications Authority (UCA) employee found a falsified credit card statement sitting on an office printer in January 2016.

As part of her sentence in U.S. District Court, Nelson must repay the $1.2 million she spent while serving as an administrative assistant at the agency. Nelson already agreed in a state civil case to a $2.3 million judgment.

"The defendant's 11-year pattern of embezzlement from the government entity she was enlisted to support was not a single, one-time mistake; momentary lapse in judgment; or a crime of opportunity," Jacob Strain, a prosecutor from the U.S. attorney's office, wrote last month.

"Her crime was a repeated series of thefts — small and large — taking place week after week, month after month, year after year," they wrote. "Ms. Nelson's criminal conduct took sustained effort, deliberation, deception and planning."

Strain asked for a prison sentence for Nelson, who he wrote, stole "more money than most Americans make even over decades of honest hard work."

Nelson's attorney and family described the conduct as uncharacteristic. Her husband told prosecutors he didn't know why she took the money, noting he would have given her "any money she needed."

Adam Crayk, Nelson's attorney in the federal case, said his client took responsibility for her actions and expected a prison sentence.

"It wasn't shocking, it wasn't out of left field," Crayk said. "Some time was expected, so we were glad that Judge [Dee] Benson did the low end of the guide range."

While Benson ordered the embezzled money repaid, prosecutors wrote that "it is highly unlikely that Ms. Nelson will ever be able to repay the full restitution amount due and owing to UCA."

Strain noted Nelson pays $1,000 a month for child care and schooling for her grandchildren and $1,000 for a mortgage on the $400,000 house bought in part using the embezzled money. She's paying $500 a month to the UCA as part of the terms of the civil case, Crayk said.

The court credited Nelson with having repaid $135,000 to the UCA. Crayk said the amount repaid so far is closer to $253,000, and that Nelson will challenge the $2.3 million judgment she and her daughter, Crystal Evans, agreed in 2016 to repay. He called the amount "asinine."

Evans was not charged in the criminal case.

The UCA board chairwoman, Tina Mathieu, won praise from state lawmakers last fall when she reported that the agency had recovered $820,000 of the stolen funds. It turned out, though, that most of the money — about $600,000 — came from the state's risk fund, an insurance pool made up of public funds.

Crayk said the state has begun an effort under a new state law that allows agencies to garnish retirement accounts and that he plans to fight those attempts.

Former UCA Executive Director Steven Proctor, who was Nelson's direct supervisor, resigned in April 2016. The agency said he wasn't implicated in the wrongdoing. A sentencing guideline from prosecutors says he stepped down "as a direct result of the embezzlement."

David Edmunds, executive director of the UCA, didn't respond to requests for comment on the status of Nelson's repayment or other potential changes at the agency since the scandal came to light.

The Legislature earlier this year approved an $18 million budget boost for UCA through increased 911 fees charged on every cellphone and landline in the state.

Twitter: @TaylorWAnderson