A crooked cleric was caught stealing from the collection basket of his tiny Upper East Side church — by suspicious congregants who secretly set up a video camera, cops said Thursday.

The Rev. Daniel Iampaglia — who is embroiled in a bitter court battle for control of the evangelical Rock Church — was busted for allegedly swiping about $238 in “worship money” over two months.

He is also accused in court papers of misappropriating more than $8,000 in church funds.

Cops were called to the church two days before Thanksgiving to break up an argument between Iampaglia and Joseph McGee, who is one of several congregants suing to oust the holy roller.

McGee handed over video that repeatedly shows Iampaglia counting cash inside a church office, then folding some of the bills and stuffing them into his pocket, police sources said.

Iampaglia, 72, was charged with petit larceny and released with a desk-appearance ticket. He is due in Manhattan Criminal Court on Tuesday.

According to a related affidavit that McGee filed in Manhattan Supreme Court this week, a review of church records has revealed that “in excess of $8,000 have been misappropriated or used without . . . approval” over the past two years.

The rip-offs “only stopped during the period in which Daniel Iampaglia was recuperating from surgery and lacked access to the ushers’ offices,” McGee claims.

Iampaglia was hired in 2012 as pastor of Rock Church, which is housed in a white, four-story building at 153 E. 62nd St. and had just 20 members and 10 to 20 additional attendees at the time, court papers say.

A year later, McGee and two other worshippers filed suit alleging Iampaglia was scheming to seize control of Rock Church and its valuable real estate.

Longtime Rock Church congregants were scared away by Iampaglia’s “explosive personality” and “unkind words,” according to court papers.

Iampaglia refused to comment and swung his cane at a photographer during a Thursday afternoon walk to a corner grocery store for an apple pie and a tub of Neapolitan ice cream.

In his most recent Sunday sermon, which is posted online, he said, “I’m looking at 2016 this way: God will lead me and provide for me, because His word so declares.”



Additional reporting by Elizabeth Ruby