Jailed for stealing £31,000 from fund for tsunami victims

Dec 27 2006 Ayrshire Post

A CHURCH volunteer has been jailed for 13 months after stealing £31,000 raised to help Peruvian orphans.

Phil Rooney embezzled the cash over two years from his church while acting as their banking official.

The cash was raised by his fellow parishioners and was being collected for victims of the tsunami disaster and for a Peruvian orphanage.

Rooney, 37, took the cash while the priest at Our Lady of Assumption in Troon, Father Archie Brown, was off with a long-term illness.

His sentence was reduced after it emerged his mother had paid back all of the cash to the church.

Jailing Rooney, Sheriff Colin Miller told him: “You took £31,000 from your fellow parishioners and breached their trust and that of Father Brown.

“This was not just weekly collections but also large donations specific for the victims of the tsunami appeal and for Peruvian orphans.

“This makes the crime even more contemptible. Indeed, when you were first confronted by Father Brown you told him ‘I haven’t taken a penny’.

“I have read the reports and listened to your lawyer but the crime is so grave that only a custodial term is available here.

“You spent the money on clothes and holidays for your pleasure. I take into account your mother has paid the money back.

“It has to be said that she is a loser in all of this as well. You would have received 18 months but for your early plea.”

The court heard last week how the church are now taking out a civil action against Rooney to recover the cash they say is still missing.

Rooney, of Bentinck Drive, Troon, was appearing at Ayr Sheriff Court after admitting embezzling the cash out of the church between 2003 and 2005.

He was originally charged with stealing £69,000 from the church before the Crown accepted his lesser plea.

The money came primarily from parishioners who made donations during Sunday mass.

It is believed Rooney’s mother, a well-respected member of the same church, has sold their plush home in Troon to pay the money back.

Rooney’s lawyer, Gerry Tierney, told the court: “He suffered a stroke in 1997 and lost his marriage and job. This led him to financial trouble and to him taking money from the church.

“He has no standing in the church or in the community because of this and, indeed, his mother will have suffered as well.

“He would like to express his apologies to the church, his mother and his family for the hurt he has caused.”

Depute fiscal Jo Cunningham told the court earlier this year: “Due to the way donations are made, it’s very difficult to ascertain how much money was taken. It could have been significantly higher.”

Rooney became the church’s bank official after his father died.

The court heard how average donations initially fell to £52 a week from £150 after Father Brown took ill.

The court heard that substantial amounts of money were soon found to be missing and that this was brought to Father Brown’s attention.

Father Brown returned to his church and immediately became more involved in the counting of donations.

Within a week the average donations had catapulted from an average of £52, while Rooney was in charge, to £352.

The diocese finance officer later declared that significant sums of money had not been lodged.

Mrs Cunningham said: “Father Brown told the accused money was missing. The accused became agitated and replied ‘I didn’t take a penny, honest’.

“He then said ‘what am I going to tell my mother’.”

A full audit of the church’s books revealed that tens of thousands more cash had never been lodged.