AUSTIN (December 4, 2009)--A Salado woman who kept books for a generation for an Austin family apologized before a judge sentenced her to a year in prison for embezzlement.

James Shipwash owned Austin Apartment Washer Service for more than 30 years and treated the 69-year-old bookkeeper, Mary Henke Geiger, like family, but problems arose in 2006 when Shipwash reviewed the books for the potential sale of the business.

Prosecutors said Geiger, who had worked for the family since the 1970s, had been stealing from the company.

Geiger acknowledged stealing $1 million from the company from 1998 to mid-2006 by writing unauthorized checks to herself, relatives and others associated with her.

Geiger was sentenced Thursday after pleading guilty in September to one count of bank fraud.