A Sharon man pleaded guilty Monday to theft and forgery charges for stealing over $500,000 from 16 people including several area senior citizens.

Michael W. Klingensmith, 35, of 1070 Pearl St., pleaded guilty to 12 counts of theft, seven counts of forgery, seven counts of deceptive business practices and two counts of securing the execution of documents by deception before Mercer County Common Pleas Court Judge President Francis J. Fornelli, a news release from Attorney General Mike Fisher's office said.

The attorney general's office began investigating Klingensmith in 1996 after a referral from District Attorney James P. Epstein. Local investigators realized that Klingensmith's victims lived in multiple counties, the release said.

Klingensmith sold water filtration systems to people and then charged them for costly repairs and replacement parts, the release said. Klingensmith also convinced victims to give him money for a hot tub business he was attempting to start.

Klingensmith defrauded 16 individuals of $550,000, and 10 of the victims were over 60 years old, the release said.

Klingensmith used the money at an off-track betting parlor in western Pennsylvania and though he won $154,567 in 1999 and $149,154 from January 2000 to June 2000, he lost nearly $900,000 during that period, the release said.

According to an affidavit from March 2001: