On Wednesday, a 40-year old churchgoer, in Auckland, was sentenced to 2 years and 3 months of imprisonment in Auckland District Court, after being accused of 15 charges of theft and deception, based on his act of forgery, telling other parishioners that he suffers from cancer and needs the money to cover the expenses of his treatment.

Gerard Francis Marychurch admitted the charges saying that he used the money he collected from the churchgoers of St. Francis & St. Therese Church in Pt. Chevalier to gamble. The money reached $NZ 252,510.

In addition to the prison sentence, Marychurch was ordered to pay his victims $NZ 50,000 as damages, after his release. One of the victims was ripped of around $80,000, by this conman. However, the identity of this victim and the other victims as well remained hidden, in compliance to the wishes of the victims themselves.

Judge Nicola Mathers said that Marychurch is even more despicable than ordinary theft because, she adds; his actions “preyed on the generosity and Christian beliefs of those parishioners”.

Marychurch sent a letter to the church’s leaders apologizing for his forgery, but the letter was completely disregarded during the trial, despite the judge giving him credit for coming clean. In that letter, the accused told the church parishioner that he was sick and a share of the robbed money actually went towards that cause. He also admitted that he collected the money to “feed his gambling addiction”.