HOLLIDAYSBURG — An Altoona woman has been ordered to pay $31,211 in back taxes after rendering guilty pleas to criminal charges filed in connection with an audit.

Debra A. Frick, 58, apologized Friday in Blair County Court and acknowledged an intention to pay $31,211 to the state Department of Revenue within 10 years.

“I just didn’t realize what was going on until it was too late,” Frick told Judge Wade A. Kagarise.

Kagarise accepted Frick’s guilty pleas to 10 first-degree misdemeanor counts of theft by failure to make required dispositions.

Those offenses and additional tax-related criminal charges were filed in December 2018 by the state Attorney’s General Office. They were based on an audit report of Frick’s business, Creative Expressions Florist and Deb’s Anteeks at 3977 Sixth Ave.

The audit report, prepared by agent Kim Bevan, claimed that between January 2014 and July 2017, Frick’s business failed to remit sales tax payment or portions of sales taxes. It also failed to remit employer withholding taxes through October 2018.

Frick, according to the criminal complaint, disagreed with the audit calculations but didn’t have sufficient documents to pursue a challenge.

Defense attorney Christian Kerstetter told Kagarise that Frick had no criminal record.

“She didn’t do this intentionally,” Kerstetter said. “To us, it’s mostly a back tax issue.”

Senior Deputy Attorney General Dave Gorman told Kagarise his office was agreeable to a probationary sentence, with the length of time to be set by a judge, in exchange for the guilty pleas and the $31,211 payment.

Kagarise set 10 years for Frick to complete payment of $31,211, plus associated costs and fines. As for probation, the judge imposed one year, to be managed by the county parole and probation office.

Mirror Staff Writer Kay Stephens is at 946-7456.