You stealing from me?

Actor Robert De Niro got ?ripped off so bad? by a former caretaker of his upstate retreat, a local landscaper testified today.

Lynn Warren of Newburgh said Joseph Jelske demanded kickbacks from him and other contractors, rarely showed up for work and used De Niro?s car ?all the time.?

Another former De Niro employee, retired excavator George Majestic, told jurors that Jelske once told him to jack up a bill by $2,000, and then split the extra money between them.

Majestic said he passed up the scheme but paid Jelske $1,000 out of his pocket because ?I felt I had to do that to continue to work? at De Niro?s 235-acre New Paltz estate.

Both men testified in Manhattan federal court in support of Jelske?s replacement, Michael Thompson, who?s suing the trust that owns the estate for defamation.

Thompson claims that ex-estate manager Peter Lambert likened him to Jelske after Thompson was fired in 2009.

Riverside Trust lawyer Ted Poretz declined to say if De Niro ever told the cops about Jelske?s alleged crookedness.