A former minister in Northern Ireland has been sentenced to six months in jail for defrauding his church congregation of £10,000 and a parishioner whose husband had died of £1,000. Adrian Robert McLaughlin, 50, was found guilty by a jury of the frauds, which took place in 2016 while he was responsible for St Colman’s Church of Ireland in Dunmurry. Judge Patrick Lynch KC said McLaughlin had “regarded the parish as if it was a personal fiefdom”. The church required two signatures on cheques when, between August and November of that year, it had no treasurer. In October, McLaughlin co-signed a cheque for £10,000, claiming it was for a new organ. The cheque was then used to pay McLaughlin.
According to Lynch, the money was spent on a fast car and other luxuries. The £1,000 given to McLaughlin at the time of a bereavement which was meant to pay for memorial items was pocketed by the minister instead. Lynch noted the “sense of hurt and disappointment” expressed in statements by McLaughlin’s victims. The judge sentenced McLaughlin to 12 months in jail, six of which were to be served in custody.
McLaughlin’s frauds emptied the St Colman’s accounts at a critical point in its recovery from an arson attack in January 2016. The judge said the fraud had caused suffering to the church, to McLaughlin’s congregation and to his family. During the trial, Lynch had noted that the frauds had also damaged the wider standing of the Christian Church.
The judge’s sentencing remarks indicated he considered that McLaughlin had shown no remorse and that his conduct demonstrated a “sense of entitlement”. As a result, Lynch thought it unlikely McLaughlin could continue to work in the church
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