A Hampton woman has been charged with multiple counts of theft by deception after defrauding her Fayette County in-laws of $40,000 over a three-year period, according to Fayette County Sheriff’s spokesman Josh Shelton.

Sarah A. Newton, 56, was charged on Dec. 14 with 18 counts of theft by deception, Shelton said.

Shelton said Newton over a period of three years convinced her in-laws that various debts she had accumulated were related to her children and, thus, that the in-laws bore some financial responsibility.

Newton manufactured a number of documents that led her in-laws to believe that they owed the alleged debts totaling approximately $40,000, Shelton said.

The victims visited a civil attorney who contacted law enforcement due to the suspicious nature of the documents, said Shelton.

Newton was arrested at her Hampton home on Dec. 13.