MANHATTAN CRIMINAL COURT — An ex-con who worked for the Archdiocese of New York filched more than $1 million from the religious organization and used it to buy expensive clothing, jewelry, handmade collectible dolls and furniture, prosecutors said Monday.
Anita Collins, 67, a clerk in the education department, made a full confession to her crimes when she was arrested Monday morning at her home in The Bronx, where she lived with her daughter, prosecutors said.
When her home was searched, authorities said they found the ill-gotten loot.
Collins, who was convicted of stealing from two previous employers, used phony checks to route church funds to her son's bank account, which she apparently could access.
She spent $14,000 at Brooks Brothers, $18,000 at Bloomingdale's and $23,000 at Barneys New York, Assistant District Attorney Amy Justiniano said at Collins' criminal court arraignment.
Collins swindled the powerful church organization — headed by Archbishop Timothy Dolan, who will soon be anointed a cardinal— even as "she held herself out as a religious woman but behind their backs she would lie and steal," Justiniano said.
It was not the first time Collins has been caught stealing from an employer.
In 1999, she was placed on probation after being convicted of stealing $50,000 from a temp agency she worked for. She also got probation for stealing from an employer in the Bronx in 1986, according to prosecutors.
Collins was ordered held on $750,000 bail.
Her attorney, Howard Simmons, said Collins does not have any of the money she is charged with stealing in her bank accounts.
The archdiocese said Collins was an employee for eight years beginning in 2003.
"Because the archdiocese seeks to always be good stewards of the money entrusted to us, we are continually working to improve our financial controls in order to prevent such occurrences from happening," said Joseph Zwilling, a spokesman for the archdiocese.
