Goodbye, dollies.
An angry judge sentenced an elderly, Madam Alexander doll-obsessed embezzler to at least 4 1/2 years today for stealing a whopping $1 million dollars from the Archdiocese of New York — calling her crime “outrageous.”
Anita Collins, 69, of Schulyerville in The Bronx, blew much of the money on pricey Madam Alexanders dolls, Belleek China, furniture from Bloomingdales and clothes from Brooks Brothers.
Collins — described as a devout, churchgoer by friends — has forfeited possession of all of her dolls and other trinkets, which now sit in storage in dozens of boxes in the Manhattan DA’s office in preparation of being inventoried and sold to reimburse the church.
“You were put in a position of trust by a trusting religious organization,” Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Lewis Bart Stone told Collins. who had pleaded guilty to grand larceny last month.
“You stole $1 million — that is an outrageous amount,” he scolded.
“The church gave you a second chance,” the judge added, referring to Collins having been convicted of grand larceny back in 1999, for stealing from a temp agency.
“And look what you did,” he said. “It was outrageous.
Collins ripped off the church while working seven years as an accounts payable clerk in the Archdiocese offices at 1011 First Avenue.
She took the money by writing herself check after check — a total of 450 of them over the years. She’d cover her trail by always sending the church false invoices in amounts less than $2,500, the threshold for supervisor approval.
Her forfeited dolls and other ill-gotten loot is valued at only $30,000 to $40,000, according to Collins’ lawyer, though a law enforcement source predicts the appraised value will be “substantially” higher.
The rest of the stolen cash is unaccounted for — and Collins has insisted there is none left. She technically owes $1,073,358.83 in restitution, but the odds on any repayment are long, given her age and looming prison sentence.
“Nobody can really explain what happened to the money,” Collins’ lawyer, Howard Simmons, told reporters afterward.
“They lived very plain lives in a simple apartment,” he said. “She was very well thought of at the Archdiocese. She’s a very nice woman. She’s lost 40 pounds” since her arrest in February, he said.
Collins’ daughter, Helen, for whom Collins had been the sole caregiver, is dying of cancer, and is fighting for the return of some of the seized items, including a printer and jewelry, which she insists are hers, the lawyer said.
“The defendant managed to embezzle from her employer through incremental theft, which exceeded $1 million over seven-and-a-half years,” said District Attorney Cyrus Vance.
“Companies that believe they have been victimized — including non-profit organizations and religious institutions — should be on watch for theft by insiders,” Vance said.
The DA’s Special Prosecutions office, which handles such crimes, has a hotline at 212-335-8900.