Metro

Janitor cleans out HS: probe

It was a case of robbing Peter to pay Preston.

A Harlem custodian dipped into his school’s payroll account to help cover his twin sons’ tuition at a pricey Pennsylvania boarding school, investigators charged.

Thurgood Marshall Academy cleaning man Edwin Hendricks worked a variety of brazen schemes to pinch more than $29,000 from the custodial account he oversaw, authorities said.

And he wrote a $1,400 check to the Solebury School in New Hope, Pa., according to Special Commissioner of Investigation Richard Condon.

Tuition at the college-prep academy tops out at almost $43,000.

Hendricks, who allegedly admitted pocketing more than $14,000 in Department of Education funds, also wrote a $150 custodial check to the campaign of Rep. Ed Towns (D-Brooklyn) and nearly $600 in school checks to the New York Life Insurance Co.

He could not be reached yesterday at his Harlem address, where a woman who identified herself as his wife said through the apartment door, “You have the wrong information.”

But he gave Condon’s office a litany of excuses for his wandering hands — including a sick wife, “financial hardship” and mistakenly using his work account rather than his personal account to make payments.

In some cases, he said that he had intended to replenish the school account.

At one point, he even patted himself on the back for not stealing as much as another custodian, Philip Portelli, who investigators found last year had stolen more than $99,000 from West Side HS.

“At least I’m not as bad as Phil,” he told probers, according to Condon’s report.

Department of Education officials said Hendricks, an employee since 2004 who makes $86,000 a year, was reassigned to a district office in February 2009.

They said they’re seeking to fire him.

Investigators said that Hendricks:

* Wrote payroll checks to himself for $1,772 covering periods for which he had already been paid.

* Wrote payroll checks to his sister, who was listed as an employee but who works at a bank in Newark.

* Cashed checks with forged endorsements that were made out to the names of other employees, some of whom he gave kickbacks.

“He sure had a variety of ways of stealing money,” said Condon, who referred his findings to the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. “It was not difficult to connect the dots.”

yoav.gonen@nypost.com