Bookkeeper admits stealing $500,000 from doctor’s office

BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) - A former bookkeeper who says she’s a compulsive buyer admits to stealing $500,000 from the doctor’s office where she worked.

Justine Smith, of Buffalo, pleaded guilty in Erie County Court Wednesday.

District Attorney John Flynn says the 56-year-old stole the money by falsifying business records while working at a doctor’s office in the Buffalo suburb of Amherst from 2011 to 2016. She told authorities she suffers from a compulsive buying disorder.

Smith faces up to 15 years in prison when she’s sentenced in May.