A church bookkeeper was busted Monday for breaking the Eighth Commandment in a huge way by stealing more than $1 million from the Archdiocese of New York. Wow you’re stealing from the church!?!? Really!?!? Click below to read the rest.
Mild-mannered Anita Collins pulled off the scam by billing the church for non-existent services and funneling the dough into accounts she controlled, according to the Manhattan district attorney’s office.
Collins, 67, kept her bosses in the dark by keeping the checks under $2,500, sources said. Anything above that amount would have required a supervisor’s okay.
Over a span of seven years, Collins issued 450 checks to herself, they said. She apparently used the ill-gotten gains to pay her mortgage and live high on the hog.
Adding insult to injury, this is not the first time Collins has been accused of embezzling funds.
Collins’ rap sheet lists two arrests for larceny before she began working eight years ago at the archdiocesan headquarters on First Ave. in Manhattan, sources said.
Church officials, however, had no idea of Collins’ crooked past because she wasn’t required to undergo a criminal background check, sources said.
Collins worked in the chancery, which is the office that manages the archdiocese’s money.
Her alleged church ripoff was uncovered during a routine audit and she was fired in December, sources said.
It appears to be a variation of the scam Collins pulled a decade earlier while working at AccuStaff, a Manhattan temp agency.
Over a 16-month period, Collins stole $46,000 by issuing duplicate checks and cashing them with check-cashing cards she had issued to herself under various names, sources said.
Collins, who was arrested in June 1999, pleaded guilty to larceny and placed on five years’ probation. She also had to pay $10,000 in restitution to AccuStaff and complete 100 hours of community service.
Previously, Collins was arrested in January 1986 in the Bronx for criminal forgery and grand larceny. In that case, she pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor and received three years’ probation, according to court papers.
The archdiocese now conducts background checks on its employees and will be tightening its financial oversight in the wake of Collins’ arrest, officials said.
Collins is accused of ripping off the archdiocese at a time when it has been shuttering schools and churches for lack of funds.
Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who is currently on a pilgrimage to the Holy Land, has asked his flock for more than $15 million in an annual charity appeal.
