Scottish Catholic Observer

Bishop Nolan of Galloway has pledged to reform parish finances in his diocese after an Ayrshire priest was sentenced to ten months in jail for embezzling almost £100,000 from Church funds.

Fr Graeme Bell was sentenced at Kilmarnock Sheriff Court on Tuesday, having previously pled guilty to stealing £96,000 from parish funds between March and May 2015. The court heard he had taken the money to fund an addiction to online gambling. Fr Bell, 41, was parish priest at Our Lady Star of the Sea in Saltcoats at the time.

Sheriff Alistair Watson heard that Fr Bell had been seeking counselling and attending Gamblers’ Anonymous and said that only the background reports and the guilty plea had stopped him handing down a sentence of between two and four years.

Difficult case

Sheriff Watson said he found it ‘a very anxious and difficult case.’

“In normal circumstances, an embezzlement case involving so much money would attract a sentence of between two and four years,” he said. “To be blunt, I feel it is somewhat exceptional, but not so exceptional that I can avoid a custodial sentence. For all the difficulties you had, they did not remove your free will. You deliberately undertook the actions you undertook.”

Fr Bell’s lawyer told Kilmarnock Sheriff Court the full amount taken had since been repaid, £25,000 before the offence came to light, £30,000 through the Church’s insurance policy and friends and family of the jailed priest raised a further £47,000.

Diocesan response

Bishop Nolan said he and his diocese was committed to a three point plan of ‘deterrence, detection and control’ to prevent a repeat of this incident.

“The deterrence is that the diocese has shown it will deal with these matters in a way expected of a charity, in conformity with charity law and the expectations of OSCAR,” the Bishop said. “There always has to be a certain amount of trust of those dealing with money, so abuse of that trust cannot be ruled out. However it must be detected as soon as possible.”

The bishop said that currently ‘the parishes submit their accounts annually, this means that financial irregularities could be happening for several months before they are detected.’

In addition ‘parishes use a variety of methods for their accounts. We are investigating online accounting which will allow the diocese more real time oversight.”

He said control would come as ‘the diocesan auditors are increasing the frequency of their audits of parish accounts.’

Meeting

Bishop Nolan met with the parish council of St Mary’s on Thursday and will celebrate Mass in the parish on the weekend of July 8 and 9 and expressed his gratitude to the parishioners of St Mary’s and St John’s in Stevenston, for their patience and fortitude during these very difficult months and to Canon Martin Poland for looking after St Mary’s Saltcoats.

“Parishioners have been very supportive of Fr Bell,” he said. “Their letters of support I am sure helped influence the sentence he received. Such loyalty to a priest is commendable, but they have been let down by his actions, and they are saddened and disappointed in seeing a priest display such human weakness. I want to show that I not only understand but share their feelings.”

He also noted that Fr Bell told the court on Tuesday that he was sending a letter to the Bishop and the parish expressing his deep sorrow and though he had yet to see that letter, but once he’d received it he would take it to the parish.

He added that he understood ‘some parishioners feel that the diocese could have kept them better informed over the past year’ but the ongoing legal proceedings had prevented the diocese from commenting.

On a personal note he said he ‘was shocked and saddened when I heard what Fr Bell had done.’

“I felt deeply sorry for him, realising what a personal tragedy it was for him, made worse by the publicity his case would receive,” he said. “I realised that the people of the parish, and indeed of the diocese, priests included, would feel deeply hurt and let down by his actions. I shared those feelings. I know that priests are human, but it is still painful to experience the failings of a fellow human being and fellow priest.”

With the conclusion of the court case, a Church Tribunal will now investigate Fr Bell’s conduct. Since Fr Bell used to work at the Tribunal in Scotland, Bishop Nolan will ask the Holy See to appoint a Tribunal in England or Ireland to carry out this investigation.

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—This story ran in full in the June 17  edition print of the SCO, available in parishes.