Ex-archdiocese clerk sentenced for $1M theft

A former accounts payable clerk for the Catholic Archdiocese of New York was sentenced Thursday to 4-1/2 to 9 years in prison for embezzling more than $1 million.

Anita Collins, 67, masterminded a scheme to falsify invoices so that she could funnel money to herself from 2004 until 2011.

She had begun working for the archdiocese in 2003, and stole the money bit by bit with more than 400 checks, prosecutors said.

Collins, who lives in the Bronx, invested the money she stole in jewelry, an expensive handmade doll collection, paintings and other items.

She pleaded guilty to grand larceny in September in State Supreme Court in Manhattan.