Father Joe Leclair jailed 1 year for stealing from his parish

By Megan Gillis
Ottawa Sun
March 19, 2014

http://www.ottawasun.com/2014/03/19/father-joe-leclair-jailed-1-year-for-stealing-from-his-parish

Joseph LeClair, former priest of Blessed Sacrement church in the Glebe, is photographed leaving the Ottawa courthouse on Monday Jan. 20, 2014. LeClair pleaded guilty after he exploited lax bookkeeping to pilfer $130,000 in church funds to fund his gambling debts, according to an agreed statement of facts read out in court. Darren Brown/Ottawa Sun/QMI Agency

Father Joseph LeClair going to jail for one year for what a judge Wednesday called a serious breach of trust by a pathological gambler.

Blessed Sacrament Church's popular former priest pleaded guilty in January to fraud and theft charges related to a five-year, $130,000 fraud on his church.

A psychiatrist diagnosed LeClair, 56, as a pathological gambler, but not all of his thieving had to do with gambling.

For instance, cut himself a $5,700 cheque to cover the cost of a vacation. He also directed that fees for the church's marriage preparation courses be paid in cash. Over the five-year fraud only $13,000 of what should have been $157,000 in revenue made it into church bank accounts; LeClair later admitted some of the money went to gambling debts.

Several dozen of his former parishioners packed the Ottawa courtroom for his sentencing hearing.