A former Georgia Tech employee pleaded guilty Tuesday to fraud charges arising from using state-issued credit cards to buy 3,800 personal items for more than $316,000.

Donna Renee Gamble, 43, of Marietta, resigned from Tech last August after working as an administrative coordinator at the school's Parker H. Petit Institute of Bioengineering and Bioscience.

Handout photo (ENLARGE)

Donna Renee Gamble

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According to federal prosecutors, Gamble used grant money from the National Science Foundation to buy all sorts of items, ranging from foosball tables to lawn tractors.

Gamble entered her guilty plea to 22 counts of mail fraud and theft from an organization receiving federal funds. She is to be sentenced July 22.

"This former Georgia Tech employee has now admitted her blatant and extensive misuse of her government p-card," U.S. Attorney David Nahmias said in a statement. "Employees with access to government credit cards should understand that the unauthorized use of public funds can lead to a felony conviction and prison."

As a Tech employee, Gamble had access to the state-issued procurement cards, or "p-cards." From April 2002 through April 2007, she used her Tech p-cards to buy thousands of personal items, prosecutors said. According to court records, she bought a Waverunner personal watercraft, Coach handbags, an electric scooter, a wide-screen TV, a dishwasher and air conditioning units for her RV.

To conceal the personal nature of certain charges on the cards, she created fake receipts, which she submitted to her supervisor, and made false entries in Tech's accounting records, prosecutors said.

Gamble's scheme was uncovered last August when a tipster contacted the Georgia Tech Department of Internal Auditing. Agents then searched her home, looking for all the items she had delivered there.