“Shopping-Obsessed” Woman Sentenced For NJ Theft

A woman who claimed a shopping obsession drove her to steal has been sentenced to seven years in prison.

Colleth Merle Rhodes pleaded guilty last month to second-degree theft. She was sentenced in state Superior Court in Newark Friday.

Rhodes, of Staten Island, N.Y., and Elizabeth, admitted transferring nearly $3 million from her job at XCEL Federal Credit Union in Bloomfield to an account in Staten Island that was in the name of a family member.

The transfers occurred between 2005 and 2010.

At her guilty plea, Rhodes said a shopping obsession was behind her criminal activity.

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