A Los Angeles nun jailed for stealing more than $800,000 to fund a gambling habit has admitted “I have sinned”.

Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper, 80, who took a vow of poverty, begged a judge to show her mercy and spare her prison, saying: “I have sinned, I’ve broken the law and I have no excuses.”

She called her crimes a “violation of my vows, my commandments, the law and, above all, the sacred trust that so many had placed in me”.

Credit cards and gambling debts

Kreuper admitted embezzling about $835,000 (£616,000) in donations, tuition and fee money between 2008 and 2018.

As headteacher at St James Catholic School, which she ran for 28 years, she “controlled accounts at a credit union, including a savings account for the school and one established to pay the living expenses of the nuns employed by the school”, prosecutors said.

The money she stole was used to pay off credit card charges and “large gambling expenses incurred at casinos”, the US attorney’s office said.

Naked suspect arrested in supermarket after fatal bus shooting in California

Coachella music festival: Harry Styles, Kanye West and Billie Eilish to headline after two year break due to COVID-19

California twins born 15 minutes apart end up having separate birthdays in different years after being born around New Year’s Day

Trips to Vegas

The nun took frequent gambling trips to Las Vegas and holidays to Lake Tahoe and other locations in southern California, according to Poonam Kumar, the assistant US attorney.

Kreuper took fellow nuns on some of those trips and spent thousands of the primary school’s money.

Mr Kumar said that jealousy played a part, calling the episode “really an abuse of position of trust”.

When first confronted, Mr Kumar said, the nun claimed she “did it in part because she believes priests get paid better than nuns”.

Nowhere to go and unemployable

Asking for the nun to be spared from prison, her lawyer Mark Byrne told the court she has been kept under “severe restrictions” at a convent by the nuns in her order.

“She doesn’t have anywhere to go,” he said. “She’s 80. She doesn’t have any money. She’s obviously not employable.”

Kreuper, he said, quoting an expert, was addicted to gambling, adding that it “is not an excuse for what she did… merely an explanation”.

US District Court Judge Otis Wright acknowledged his own anguish in deciding a punishment to fit the crime, saying “I haven’t slept well in God knows how long” as he rejected prosecutors’ call for a two-year sentence.

He said he could not bring himself to judge Kreuper solely on “the worst thing that she’s done in her life”, the LA Times said.

The judge settled on a prison sentence of one year and a day and also ordered Kreuper to pay back the money she had stolen from the school.

Related posts:

Disaster declared in Texas as rare winter storm sees temperatures plummet to -5C George Floyd: Police officers investigated after ‘you take my breath away’ Valentine report Olympic champion ‘wouldn’t let daughter become gymnast’ after abuse scandal Tiger Woods back home ‘working on getting stronger every day’ after horror crash Tropical Storm Claudette brings flooding to southeast US US Capitol rioter becomes first to be jailed following pro-Trump insurrection A dream 52 years in the making: Amazon founder ready to blast off into space Oregon Bootleg wildfire threatens 3,400 homes as more than 360,000 acres destroyed US to reopen borders to vaccinated passengers from UK and EU on 8 November Former US Secretary of State Colin Powell dies following COVID complications, says family Amazon workers were left ‘terrified and powerless’ after it concealed COVID cases, California says ‘I know I am to blame’: ‘QAnon Shaman’ jailed for 41 months over US Capitol riot