Former Accountant Steals From Non-Profits To Fuel Shopping Addiction

KITTANNING (KDKA) -- Investigators have traced large amounts of missing money from three non-profit agencies to a 62-year-old former accountant who told police she had a shopping addiction.

The missing funds total more than $200,000.

Beverly Steffey of Kittanning faces 3 felony counts each of theft, identification theft and forgery.

Trooper James Long told KDKA's Kym Gable that Steffey worked as an accountant for the Progressive Workshop of Allegheny County, the Allegheny Valley Land Trust and the Armstrong County Conservancy Charitable Trust from 2010 to 2015.

"She was acting as an accountant for those three businesses," Trooper Long said. "She was writing checks and paying bills and she used and forged those checks and stole the money throughout those 5 years."

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Michelle Reefer, CEO of Progressive Workshop, said the ordeal "was hard to get through." Progressive offers vocational rehabilitation programs for people with mental and physical disabilities. The agency helps trainees get the skills they need to enter the workforce and contribute to their communities.

Reefer said none of those stolen funds were from direct donations or grants.