Crystina Renee Bock Gets 5 Years For Stealing $200,000 From Church Basket

​In March, former financial secretary Crystina Renee Bock pleaded guilty to stealing more than $200,000 from the weekly offerings made by congregants at Compass Bible Church in Aliso Viejo.

Today, the 34-year-old Ladera Ranch resident learned her sentence.

For pleading guilty March 16 to 62 felony counts of grand theft with sentencing enhancement and allegations for aggravated white collar crime exceeding $100,000 and losses over $100,000, Bock was sentenced to five years in state prison and ordered to pay over $200,000 in restitution.

Courtesy of Orange County District Attorney's Office

Crystina Bock changed the books at Compass Bible Church.

​ She began working as the church's part-time financial secretary on June 1, 2005, and helped with accounting for offerings and payments made congregants. She also prepared the church's weekly deposits, updated the electronic financial records, and sent contribution statements to the congregants documenting their donations for tax purposes.

But from about the time she started through September 2008, Bock took more than 440 donation checks and deposited them into her personal account--and altered the church's financial records to hide her thefts.

The Orange County Sheriff's Department was called in September 2008 after the church's financial supervisors discovered a $1,000 check donated by a congregant had been cashed but was not deposited into the church's account, as recorded by Bock.