Durham priest admits stealing £50,000 from church

A Catholic priest has admitted abusing his position by fraudulently takingat least £50,000 of church money over more than four years.

Father John Charles Leo Reid could be facing a prison sentence afterchanging his plea to guilty at Durham Crown Court.

The 69-year-old priest is alleged to have taken the money in the four yearsand five months after taking over the ministry of St Cuthbert's Church, inRopery Lane, Chester-le-Street, and St Bede's Catholic, in nearby Sacriston.

Fr Reid voluntarily withdrew from public ministry following his arrest inMay 2014, while Durham Police spent more than two years conductinginvestigations into his case.

This situation will continue until he is sentenced at Durham Crown Court.

He was charged, last July, under the Fraud Act, 2006, and appeared beforePeterlee Magistrates Court.

The case was sent to the crown court, where Fr Reid denied two charges offraud by abuse of position, in September.

It was alleged between June 1, 2009, and October 31, 2013, he abused hisposition as parish priest.

While in his position "he was expected to safeguard, or not act against,the financial interests of the Diocese of Hexham and Newcastle, by failing todraw only modest and legitimate expenses, failing to set up a finance committee, and by failing to keep proper receipts and accounts, as he was required to do."

It was alleged some of the money taken went on foreign travel, restaurantsand cinema trips, but he claimed a lot of that spending came from an inheritance.

The case was set down for trial, due to start at the court in May.

But on Monday, Fr Reid's counsel, Christopher Knox, asked for onecount to be put again to his client.

Fr Reid pleaded guilty, which the court heard was on a basis accepted bythe Crown.

Mr Knox said: "What we now hope is that sentence can be dealt with, onApril 7.

"We would anticipate there being a number of character references. There is a sum of money to be repaid to the diocese and we hope that willbe effective by the time of sentence."

Judge Christopher Prince said he wanted to know the exact agreed amountthat is said to have been taken before the sentencing hearing.

Jane Waugh, prosecuting, told the court: "We have agreed that the lowestfigure is £50,000."

Mr Knox said some sums of money recovered by the police have already been passed on to the diocese.

Bailing Fr Reid, to St Patrick's Presbytery, in Fairfield Road, Stockton,until sentence, Judge Prince told him: "The fact the case has been adjourned for sentence should be seen as no indication as to the final sentence."

A spokesman for the diocese said it will not make comment, "until the fullcourt process has run its course".

Since being ordained into the priesthood in March 1971, Fr Reid has servedin a number of parish positions across County Durham.

He served in Leadgate, Tow Law and Our Lady and St Thomas’ in Willington, before being appointed to St Cuthbert’s Church in 2009.

Fr Reid is a keen Sunderland fan who led regular pilgrimages to thereligious site of Lourdes in France.

He was a long-standing supporter of the former Ushaw College Roman Catholic seminary, near Durham, and sat on the council of St Cuthbert's Society, an association of Ushaw alumni.