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Chelsea Bank Manager Gets Prison for Stealing From Blind Octogenarian: DA

 People's United Bank at 127 Seventh Ave., between West 17th and 18th streets.
People's United Bank at 127 Seventh Ave., between West 17th and 18th streets.
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DNAinfo/Maya Rajamani

CHELSEA — A former bank manager who stole $178,000 from an elderly blind woman while helping her with her finances has been sentenced to two six years in prison, the Manhattan District Attorney’s office said.

Jovan Cunningham, 35, — who worked as a customer service manager at People’s United Bank at 127 Seventh Ave., between West 17th and  18th streets — pleaded guilty last month to withdrawing cash from the then-83-year-old woman’s bank account without her permission on more than 50 occasions, the DA’s office said.

“For almost two years, Jovan Cunningham repeatedly stole from a blind, elderly customer at the bank where he worked,” Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. said in a statement.

Cunningham started helping the victim with her finances back in 2009, when she opened accounts at the bank, the DA’s office said.

He often brought deposit and withdrawal slips and "small amounts of cash" to the woman's apartment when she requested them, in addition to helping her write checks, prosecutors said. 

Cunningham was also making cash withdrawals from the victim's account without her knowledge — some of which ranged between $2,000 and $4,500, the DA’s office said.

“During one eight-day period in April 2013, more than $20,000 in cash was withdrawn from the victim’s accounts,” the DA’s office said.

The bank discovered the thefts when Cunningham wrote two checks to himself from one of the victim’s accounts in 2013, the DA said.

Cunningham was no longer working at the bank when he wrote the checks, the Daily News reported.

The former manager has been ordered to fork over $166,000 to cover the $150,000 People’s United Bank paid to the now-88-year-old woman and the $15,000 she is still owed, the outlet said.

A People's United Bank manager did not immediately respond to request for comment on Wednesday.