Bettysue Higgins has pleaded guilty in Kennebec County Superior Court to theft by unauthorized transfer and forgery. She stole $166,000 from the group Maine Trial Lawyers Association.

What makes this particularly relevant to gaming is that the former administrative assistant for the Association said much of it was spent on social games. She issued the plea just as the jury trial on those charges was scheduled to begin.

Between May 22, 2006, and Sept. 9, 2010, Higgins signed off on 220 checks payable to herself. Association executive director Steven Prince noticed this when a check he had written for $5,500 bounced.

During the latter 18-month period, between January 2009 and September 10, 2010, Higgins had 78 checks that directly funded her pursuits in Zynga’s YoVille and Mafia Wars. “Apparently she was buying virtual coins for virtual property in a virtual world,” said prosecutor, Assistant Attorney General Leanne Robbin.

Defense attorney Ronald Bourget has noted earlier that Higgins’ personal bank account record for February 2010 shows she had more than $4,000 in gaming-addiction expenditures. A condition of probation will be that Higgins pay up to $166,700 in restitution, but it’s unlikely the full amount will ever be recovered; a home owned by Higgins and her husband is in foreclosure.

Source: Kennebec Journal