ALEXANDRIA, Va. – NCUA barred a former middle school vice principal who managed a tiny credit union out of his school offices for stealing $308,000 of the credit union’s funds.
Stephen Shinnick, 65, was sentenced in April to two-and-a-half years in prison after he told the judge he stole the funds to feed a gambling habit. As part of his sentence, Shinnick must pay restitution to the credit union and continue with treatment for his gambling addiction once his probation begins.
At the time of the crime, Shinnick was vice principal at Coakley Middle School in Norwood, Mass., where the credit union, which never had more than $800,000 in assets, was housed.
While serving as manager/treasurer of the credit union, Shinnick wrote checks totaling $13,000 to his children, $130,402 to himself and used an additional $164,516 to pay his personal bills, using other people’s money, according to court records. Shinnick also issued several checks to members of the credit union that he did not record. The members denied ever receiving the money, according to records.
The theft amounted to more than half of the assets of the tiny credit union, which was merged into nearby Rockland FCU in June 2009. The tiny credit union had about 250 employees of the Norwood school system as active members.
