A former daycare provider who reportedly defrauded 20 families and cost Mower County more than $50,000 took a plea deal Friday.

Stacy Marie Wisemore, 42, pleaded guilty to a felony theft by wrongfully obtaining assistance charge in Mower County District Court. Sixteen counts of aggravated forgery and one charge of theft by false representation were dismissed.

Wisemore was a licensed certified child care provider for Mower County Human Services (MCHS), according to a court complaint. The fraud was detected for the first time on May 11, when a client contacted MCHS regarding her child care provider contract. She said her children had been going to a different care provider than Wisemore since February, but her new contract had not been approved.

After investigating, MCHS officials realized the woman’s contract had not been approved because the county was still receiving vouchers from Wisemore so she could receive payment for watching the children. According to the complaint, many of the vouchers contained forged signatures and incorrect billing times.

Another client told MCHS that she had been paying Wisemore out-of-pocket due to a co-pay agreement; records showed Wisemore had also been submitting vouchers for the time for which she was paid out-of-pocket by parents, meaning she was getting paid twice.

Investigators found one client whose children hadn’t been in Wisemore’s care since November 2009, but Wisemore submitted hours and vouchers for providing care for them until January 2010. The client said when Wisemore was watching the children, it was usually only an hour or two each week, but Wisemore billed 30-65 hours biweekly, according to the complaint.

When police spoke with her, Wisemore initially denied the claims but later admitted to forging some signatures. She said she only forged the signatures if the parent forgot to sign or didn’t have time to sign. As a result of the investigation, police found Wisemore had defrauded 20 families from 2007 to May 2011, causing MCHS to lose $51,492.

Wisemore is scheduled for sentencing on Dec. 15.