LETHBRIDGE: A former Lethbridge Community Bingo Association employee was given 10-months in jail and ordered to repay the $79,225 she stole from the organization Wednesday in court.

44-year old Tonya Husband pleaded guilty last August to theft over $5,000. The bingo association is a non-profit organization made up of 29 community charity groups.

Husband had been asking for a Conditional Sentence Order (CSO) with house arrest. Her defense was that in the fall of 2010 she met a man online who claimed to live in Malaysia. She said that he wanted to move here and be with her, but that he needed financial support to do so, adding that he had a great deal of money that was tied up and that he could repay her once he got here.

Under the pressure and dealing with depression at the time, Husband decided to take the money from the association and planned to pay it back before anyone noticed.

In 2011 Husband was confronted when the theft came to light and she admitted to everything. It also turned out that the man from Malaysia was defrauding her and she was never paid back.

After the sentencing Husband's lawyer Greg White spoke to the media, "Only one person in this whole scenario wasn't punished, and that was the fraudster from Malaysia." He noted that both Husband and the groups she impacted with her thefts now have to suffer.