Man Steals $220k From Kindergarten to Support Gambling Habit

Periclis Telios, 41, of Bentleigh, Australia, has been charged with the unthinkable…

Stealing from a kindergarten.

The gambling addict plead guilty Monday after admitting to the $224,008.49 theft from the Ward Avenue Kindergarten Association at Oakleigh South between the months of February and October of last year.

Telios was made president of the committee at his daughter’s kindergarten.  

Judge Carolyn Douglas said it best: "It was like putting the fox in the chook pen."

Telios said he spent the money betting on the AFL, greyhounds, horse racing and nearly everything else after initially blaming other members of the committee for the theft.

"I didn't think it would reach this stage. It occurred virtually if not every day, every second day.

"The losses started coming. I started panicking like crazy and the more I was losing the more I panicked."

- Jagajeet Chiba, Gambling911.com