SCOTLAND
Scotsman
RORY CASSIDY
Tuesday 14 June 2016
A priest was jailed for ten months today for stealing nearly £100,000 from church funds to pay for an online gambling problem.
Father Graeme Bell, 41, was parish priest at Our Lady Star of the Sea church, in Saltcoats, Ayrshire.
He embezzled the money between March and May 2015 and used it to play online roulette while “paralysed” by his gambling addiction, Kilmarnock Sheriff Court heard.
Last month, Fr Bell pleaded guilty to embezzling £96,000 from the parish and sentence was deferred for him to be assessed by social workers on the most appropriate way of dealing with him.
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