Stolen $2.3M fed lottery habit

RIVERHEAD, N.Y. — A former bookkeeper for a doctor's office pleaded guilty Wednesday to stealing more than $2.3 million from her employer to buy lottery tickets.

Annie Donnelly, 38, of Farmingville spent up to $6,000 a day playing lotto and scratch-off lottery games, prosecutors said. She faces four to 12 years in prison for stealing the money from her employers, Great South Bay Surgical Associates.

Donnelly, who is being held in lieu of $150,000 bail, also will have to repay the money. She pleaded guilty to second-degree grand larceny.

"She obviously had a gambling problem," said Donna Planty, assistant district attorney.

Investigators think Donnelly may have won jackpots of $5,000 or even $25,000, but never enough to cover the amount stolen, Planty said.

Defense attorney George Vlachos declined to comment.

A telephone call to the employer was not returned.

Planty said that between June 2002 and November 2005, Donnelly wrote company checks for cash, petty cash or checks payable to herself and falsely listed them as payments to vendors associated with the medical office.

She used the money to "feed her pathological addiction," Suffolk County District Attorney Thomas Spota said.

The average check was for less than $3,000, and Donnelly wrote them in oddly numbered amounts to avoid being caught, prosecutors said. She also would "move money around" to different accounts to elude discovery.