A former employee in Hinton has been charged with defrauding the Royal Bank of $1.1 million over a six-year period.

The 42-year-old woman, who currently lives in Leduc, faces three counts of fraud over $5,000 and one count of theft over $5,000.

She is accused of obtaining credit and misappropriating funds from existing and fictitious bank customers from May 2001 to August 2007.

The charges were laid following an investigation that began after bank investigators forwarded the file to the RCMP Commercial Crime Unit in 2008.

The accused is scheduled to make her first court appearance in Hinton on April 3.