Two years for thieving HRA worker

She put a hex on her ex using public money — and it cost her two years of her life.

Former city Human Resources Administration employee Eliana Bauta (inset) was sentenced Wednesday for stealing more than $300,000 in taxpayer money — some of which prosecutors said she used to pay a supernatural specialist to put a spell on her former flame. Most of the stolen funds went to family and friends.

“You took money that did not belong to you from people in need,” Manhattan Federal Judge Valerie Caproni said.

Bauta, 36, did not address the voodoo hex in her remarks in court. Rather, she said that incarceration had made her realize that she was mentally ill.

“My mental illness has led me to a path of destruction,” Bauta said. “What I have done will haunt me for the rest of my life.”

Her former gig as a “job opportunity specialist” at HRA paid $46,286 a year.

“Public benefits must be safeguarded for eligible individuals and not squandered by fraudsters who manipulate the system for their own gain,” city Investigation Commissioner Margaret Garnett said.

Bauta must also serve three years of supervised release. Two people she enlisted in the scheme, Eric Gonzales and Geraldine Perez, have been sentenced to two years of probation and nine months in jail, respectively.

“The defendants have now been convicted of stealing money that was intended to be used to help some of New York’s neediest residents. As this prosecution makes clear, we are committed to rooting out those who would abuse the public trust and to ensuring that funds from public programs go to their intended recipients, not the pockets of unscrupulous employees and their co-conspirators,” Manhattan U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman said.