Gabrielle Veronica Gibson of Buford, formerly an independent contractor who delivered newspapers to stores for The Times, was sentenced to jail time and probation on Monday on a charge of theft by taking.

Gibson had been accused of stealing more than $2,500 from The Times by creating duplicate sets of records, then signing them on behalf of store clerks to present inaccurate data on the numbers of newspapers being sold in stores. She then kept the cash she had collected.

Gibson was accused of having falsified nearly 200 such transactions while contracting with the newspaper.

She entered a first offender plea and was sentenced to a total of five years, with the first six months in confinement and the remainder on probation. Terms of the sentence require her to spend 10 days in jail, with the remainder of the initial six months on house arrest or work release.

In addition she must pay $2,581.29 to The Times as restitution, fines of $2,550 as well as court and attorney costs, and serve 50 hours of community service.