AUGUSTA – A former clerk for the town of Manchester has been sentenced to 18 months in jail for forging the signatures of local taxpayers in a case that led to $212,000 missing from the municipality’s treasury.

A Superior Court judge sentenced 54-year-old Patsy Rollins to five years in prison with all but 18 months suspended. She reports to Kennebec County Jail on Friday.

A jury convicted Rollins on Aug. 22 of forging taxpayers’ signatures on 31 Postal Service “return cards.” Residents get those cards to show they received notices that liens would be put on their properties for unpaid taxes.

Most if not all of those residents had paid their taxes. A prosecutor says they had to go through the aggravation of getting erroneous liens removed.