SAN DIEGO -- A Paradise Hills woman accused of stealing about $72,000 from the bank accounts of patients of several area dental offices where she worked as office manager pleaded not guilty Thursday to 20 felony charges.

Emily Marie Forbes, 48, was ordered held on $250,000 bail.

She is charged with 10 counts of burglary, three counts each of grand theft and elder financial abuse, and two counts each of forgery and identity theft.

A half-dozen of the 18 alleged victims are over age 65, said El Cajon police Lt. Tim Henton.

El Cajon police detectives arrested Forbes, an employee of Scripps Ranch Family Dentistry, at her workplace on Tuesday, Henton said.

Forbes is suspected of committing the crimes over a several-year period while working at five dental offices in Chula Vista, El Cajon and San Diego. She allegedly filched checks from patients, then used their personal and financial information to open fraudulent credit accounts.

"Forbes sometimes asked patients to leave their checks blank, telling the victims that she would stamp the dental office's name on the check," the lieutenant said. "Forbes then deposited the checks into her own account."

The suspect also allegedly used her employers' credit-card terminals to refund money to checking accounts to which she had access, according to Henton.

Forbes was arraigned by Judge Francis Devaney, who ordered her to return to court Sept. 1 for a readiness conference and the following day for a preliminary hearing.