Beastly bookkeeper Claudio Tavarez was sent off to nine months jail this morning for siphoning off some $18,000 from the September 11th Families’ Association.

The 9/11 zero-among-heros stole the money by writing 15 checks to himself from the Cortlandt Street-based association’s accounts. He’d then lie in the ledger books that the checks were paid out to vendors.

He would even forge the name of the chief operating officer on the checks.

Tavarez, who has since repaid what he stole, stared into space and — bizarrely — broke into a smile as Manhattan Supreme Court officers snapped the cuffs on him and led him away.