Woman gets prison for stealing from father in Gurnee

A woman who admitted stealing more than $60,000 from her father was sentenced to five years in prison Monday in Lake County Circuit Court.

Nina Greco, 21, told Circuit Judge John Phillips she took the money to feed her heroin addiction.

Assistant State's Attorney George Pappas said Greco, who had several addresses in Chicago before her arrest, entered her father's house in Gurnee on April 7, 2008. A neighbor who saw her go into the house called police because she knew Greco's father had barred her from the property, Pappas said.

Police arrived and found Greco with several of her father's business checks and his personal data assistant that she admitted she intended to steal.

She was charged with theft and released on bond.

While still on bond, Greco went into her father's house on April 1, 2009 and took her father's business checks.

Between April and August, she forged 134 checks for a total of $61,860, including a payment of $15,000 to a heroin dealer in North Chicago.

She pleaded guilty to the original theft charge, and identity theft in the second case, and faced a total of 10 years in prison.

Pappas asked Phillips to impose an eight-year sentence, while Assistant Public Defender Art Kessler asked for local jail time and a drug-treatment program for his client.

Phillips imposed the five-year sentence and urged Greco to seek drug treatment there.