Originally published at National Catholic Register
A bookkeeper at a Florida Catholic parish has been sentenced to more than two years of federal prison after stealing nearly $900,000 from the church at which she managed financial records.
Heather Darrey will spend 27 months in prison on a wire fraud conviction over her $875,323 theft from Christ the King Parish in south Tampa, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Middle District of Florida.
The prosecutor’s office did not name the parish, but the Tampa Bay Times identified the church in question as Christ the King.
Darrey worked as the records and finance manager at the parish, the U.S. attorney’s office said.
She “abused her position of trust by engaging in a scheme in which she created false and fraudulent bank checks drawn against [the church’s] business bank account and made them payable to her own account,” the prosecutor’s office said.
Checks were also made payable to her mortgage company and other creditors.
Prosecutors said Darrey would draft legitimate checks to parish vendors and have them signed, after which she would destroy those checks and make out fraudulent ones for herself.
Darrey also “input false and fraudulent data” into the parish’s accounting software system.
The money
