A professional counselor who admitted bilking clients out of hundreds of thousands of dollars has been sentenced in Fulton County court to four years in prison.
Colleen Higgins played on the sympathy of clients by asking them for money to deal with “family issues,” according to a news release from the Fulton County District Attorney’s Office.
From 2007 through 2009, Higgins “borrowed’ $277,500 total from at least eight clients who loaned her amounts ranging from $2,500 to $90,000, prosecutors said. The woman repaid only $6,000 to a single victim.
One victim was told if he did not give money, he would no longer receive treatment, prosecutors said.
Higgins eventually fled the state, briefly surfacing at a convent in California and then in Iowa, where she was arrested in 2010.
Higgins’ counseling license has been revoked. As a condition of her plea agreement Monday, she may not have contact with any of her victims and must submit periodic financial affidavits, and her personal spending will be restricted.
Atlanta police Detective J.T. Owens led the initial investigation. The case was prosecuted by Chief Senior District Attorney Brad Malkin of the White Collar Crime Unit, assisted by district attorney’s investigator Natalie Brunner.
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