vlad.tribnet.com / Issue #564 / Crime watch / Reading article...

Khabarovsk’s regional court sentenced a teacher to two and half years in prison for gathering money from students for educational purposes and spending it on personal needs, a press statement from the court reported.

The 37-year-old woman, who worked in primary classes in two local elementary schools, had collected cash from the parents of 17 pupils from April to August 2006 for purchasing textbooks and visual aids. However, she pocketed the money never buying the textbooks.

According to the statement, the sum appropriated by the woman amounted to some 23,000 rubles ($885).

At the trial, the teacher did not plead guilty saying she needed the money for medical treatment of her own child.

The woman had already been charged with similar crimes in 1996 and 1998, the statement said.

The teacher will serve her sentence in a general regime colony, a minimum security facility, and will have to pay a fine of 5,000 rubles ($192). By the court’s decision, she will also be deprived of the right to work in any teaching position for a three-year period after her release.