Shvo’s house-sitter sentenced to three years in prison for theft

A Brooklyn house-sitter who was arrested on charges of grand larceny last July for stealing $44,000 plus 7,500 British pounds (the equivalent of $11,900) from broker Michael Shvo’s apartment at 25 Columbus Circle, has finally landed herself in prison, a spokesperson for the district attorney’s office told The Real Deal.

Sandra Miranda, 45, was sentenced today to between 18 months and three years in state prison, the spokesperson said, for stealing from Shvo, who was at one time the most successful young real estate marketer in New York. Miranda had been hired to house-sit for Israeli-born Shvo, according to news reports, who owns the apartment on the 68th floor of the Time Warner Center.

Miranda’s attorney, Steven Questore, was not immediately available for comment.

It is not the first time Miranda, who confessed in full to the crime, according to the criminal complaint, had been accused of theft. In 2001, the police charged her with stealing a credit card belonging to friend Laura Gilly, an employee of commercial brokerage Cantor Fitzgerald, who died in the World Trade Center attacks. While checking on Gilly’s cat following the attacks, Miranda allegedly snatched the card and later ran up charges of $5,000 thanks to a three-day spending spree at the Staten Island Mall.

A spokesperson for the Staten Island district attorney’s office said Miranda had been sentenced to six months in jail and five years probation in the earlier case.

Shvo, who has disappeared from the New York real estate circuit in recent years in favor of focusing on buying and selling contemporary art, declined to comment on the sentencing.

He purchased the apartment in 2006 for $6.5 million, according to public records.