A former state employee has been charged in a theft scheme involving between $1,500 and $25,000 in forged checks from the Maryland Department of Labor.

The charges filed June 3 list 10 felonies across two cases, including the forgery of private documents and the issue of false documents, according to court records.

A former clerk in the department allegedly altered copies of checks payable to the state and deposited them into personal bank accounts, according to a news release from the Maryland attorney general’s office last week that announced her indictment.

After the department fired the defendant in 2022, she allegedly continued to deposit forged checks from her time as a state employee.

In the second case, the defendant, a 45-year-old Essex woman, allegedly forged a former colleague’s signature to file a fraudulent insurance claim for lost wages from the state in June and July 2023, well after she was fired.

The defendant has an initial appearance hearing on July 8 in Baltimore County Circuit Court, according to court documents.