‘I have sinned’: 80-year-old gambling nun jailed after blaming gender pay gap for stealing $800,000 from kids

Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper said she stole tuition checks and donations in part because ‘priests get paid better than nuns’ and she deserved a raise

Sister Mary is not full of grace.

The 80-year-old nun pleaded for mercy after stealing $835,339 from an elementary Catholic school to fund her gambling addiction.

When first confronted by the Archdiocese of Los Angeles, Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper blamed the gender pay gap and said she deserved a raise because "priests get paid better than nuns".

“I have sinned," Sister Mary told a US District Court, according to The Los Angeles Times.

While some parents from St James Catholic School in Torrance, California, forgave the former principal for embezzling tuition checks, Judge Otis D Wright II invoked the wrath of those who didn’t in sentencing her to a penance of one year and one day in prison.

Sister Mary pleaded guilty in July to wire fraud and money laundering over 10 years, from 2008 until she retired in 2018 as principal of the elementary school, where she had been for 28 years.

Prosecutors, who called for a two-year sentence, said the stolen school fees and donations could have covered tuition for 14 students over 10 years.

The school lacked funding for new books, classroom supplies and field trips, while Sister Mary went on gambling field trips with friends to Las Vegas and Lake Tahoe.

“One of the things she said when she was first confronted by the LA Archdiocese and even before law enforcement got involved was she did it in part because she believes priests get paid better than nuns,” Assistant US Attorney Poonam Kumar told The NY Post.

The Archdiocese of Los Angeles did not immediately respond to whether there is a gender pay gap between the diocese’s male clergy and nuns that had taken a vow of poverty from the Order of the Sisters of St Joseph of Carondelet.

Sister Mary Margaret Kreuper (CBS News)

In a statement, the Archdiocese said they informed law enforcement of the misappropriated school funds after she announced her retirement in 2018.

"We continue to offer our prayers for all impacted by this matter," the statement said.

The scheme was discovered after two school employees reported Sister Mary to the parish monsignor for ordering them to destroy documents during an audit of the school’s finances, according to authorities.

Defence attorneys Mark A Byrne and Daniel V Nixon said in a statement after the sentencing that she accepted "full responsibility" after being confronted.

She became a nun at 18-years-old and “dedicated her life to helping others and educating children".

"Unfortunately, later in her life she has been suffering from mental illness that clouded her judgment and caused her to do something that she otherwise would not have done," the statement said.

Sister Mary was ordered to pay $835,339 in restitution to St James Catholic School, but it was lowered to $10,000 to account for what she has already repaid.

At her sentencing, she promised to follow more closely in Christ’s footsteps.