A Cranberry Township woman is being accused of taking nearly $19,000 in cash from dental patients over the course of a few years.

Kimberly R. Cook, 58, was charged by township police with two counts of felony theft after certain fraudulent transactions were discovered at General Dental Associates on Rochester Road, Cranberry Township.

Police said a representative of Generational Dental Associates contacted them in April. The representative said Cook had been employed as a clerk at their Cranberry office since January 2021.

Cook was responsible for accepting payment from patients as well as insurance reimbursements, the representative told police.

Through the record keeping software used by the company, representatives said they discovered two strange transactions entered by Cook. One entry reflected that a patient paid $500 less than what was actually provided the company, according to the affidavit.

Police said payment records were obtained dating back to 2021, and 46 instances showed that a card payment was entered into the software, but there were no corresponding charges made with the credit card processing company.

Patients were contacted about the transactions, and police said 33 of them indicated that they had paid in cash for those transactions instead of using a credit card.

Those 33 instances amounted to $19,880, according to the affidavit.

Another eight patients told police they couldn’t remember how they paid, but said it was possible they used cash.

Those eight instances amounted to $1,799, according the affidavit.

Some patients told police that Cook encouraged them to pay in cash.

Police said that when Cook was interviewed, she admitted to stealing cash payments many times and entering credit card payments for the same transaction instead.