Catholic priests on theft charge
Published:Thursday | January 22, 2009 | 4:31 PM
Two Roman Catholic priests have been accused of stealing 800 thousand dollars from the collection plate of their church in the US state of Florida.
They allegedly planned to spend the money on property, holidays, gambling and to meet the expenses of mistresses.
One of the priests, Father John Skehan has admitted the charges, but his colleague, Father Francis Guinan has denied them.
US law prevents the priests from being charged with thefts that occurred before 2001.
But the auditors say that up to 8 million dollars might have disappeared over a period of 20 years.
It could be the biggest embezzlement case to affect the Catholic Church in the United States.