MARQUETTE, MI - An Upper Peninsula woman created counterfeit receipts to obtain $9,000 in rebates from beer, wine and liquor companies, court records say.

Carol Rae Vitton of Gogebic County is accused of mail fraud in felony information filed in U.S. District Court.

She is due in federal court next month in Marquette.

The government said she produced over 700 counterfeit sales receipts that she sent with rebate applications to beer, wine and liquor companies. She received about $9,000 in rebate payments she was not entitled to, Assistant U.S. Attorney Maarten Vermaat wrote in court documents.

The filing of felony information signals that she cooperated with authorities rather than have the case go before a grand jury. She has a change of plea hearing set for Jan. 21.

"Specifically, Carol Rae Vitton, with the intent to defraud, knowingly devised and intended to devise a scheme (a) to create counterfeit sales receipts that falsely and fraudulently indicated that she had made beer, wine and liquor purchases and (b) to send these counterfeit sales receipts and associated rebate applications by the U.S. mail to beer, wine, and liquor companies, and associated rebate processing companies, in order to obtain rebate payments to which she was not entitled," Vermaat wrote in court documents.

The alleged crimes occurred between September 2010 and Oct. 13, 2011, records said.

John Agar covers crime for MLive/Grand Rapids Press E-mail John Agar: jagar@mlive.com and follow him on Twitter at twitter.com/ReporterJAgar