Metro

Couple faces charges for stealing money from day care business

A multimillion-dollar day care fraudster — who unleashed violent karate moves on news photographers after a 2011 court appearance — was sentenced to probation Thursday in Brooklyn federal court.

Ziming Shen and his wife, Joanna Fan, pleaded guilty last year to embezzling $3 million in government funds intended to finance meals for impoverished kids through their day care empire.

Ziming Shen tries to kick a photographer after leaving the Brooklyn Federal Court House in 2011.

Shen exploded into violence outside Brooklyn federal court after a hearing and showcased a ferocious combination of punches and kicks on assembled members of the media.

Judge Dora Irizarry took pity on the ferocious father of three yesterday and sentenced him to a year of home confinement followed by four years of supervised release after he tearfully begged for mercy.

“I feel very bad, very sorry for the misconduct I committed,” he said before arguing that his kids would crumble without him.

The judge was far less lenient toward his wife and slapped her with a nearly five-year prison term last month.

Worth roughly $30 million, she was considered the mastermind of the fraud.

Shen has already served 13 months in prison and still faces misdemeanor assault raps in connection with the photographer attack.

The pugnacious Chinese immigrant had his $750,000 bail revoked after he attempted to flee to his native land in 2012 and was also admonished for trying to aggravate his diabetes by eating sweets in prison to force a release.

The couple are on the hook for repaying the entire amount of the fraud.