AUSTIN — A former child care provider who reportedly defrauded 20 families through subsidies was court-ordered Thursday to pay more than $50,000 in restitution.

Stacy Marie Wisemore, 42, was sentenced at Thursday’s court appearance to 10 days in jail and two years probation. Wisemore was convicted of theft by wrongfully obtaining assistance, which is a gross misdemeanor conviction, according to court documents.

According to a court complaint, Wisemore was a licensed certified child care provider for Mower County Department of Human Services. Wisemore’s fraudulent activity was detected for the first time on May 11, when the Department of Human Services learned the county was receiving vouchers from Wisemore so she could receive payment for watching her client’s children; however, the children Wisemore claimed to be watching had been going to a different care provider than Wisemore for a few months, according to the complaint.

Another client told the department 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 the Human Services Department to lose $51,492.

Wisemore must pay that amount in restitution, according to court documents.