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11/02/2009 01:04 AM ID: 81499 Permalink   

Churches Raise $500,000 for Gambling Addict; Said he Had Cancer

 

New Zealand - 39-year-old Gerard Marychurch faces Auckland District Court this week on charges accusing him of deceiving money out of area churches by pretending to be a cancer sufferer in need of treatment money, totaling $500,000 since 2004.

Marychurch said in a written apology that most of the cash went toward his addiction to gambling. A female parishioner said that he also lied about having to travel to the South Island for specialist treatment, where parishioners were out of sight.

"I was suspicious of what was going on, so made some enquiries down in Dunedin. They came up with nothing. At the time I thought he was being ripped off by some charlatan," she said. Marychurch's priest has since welcomed him back to the church.

 
  Source: www.stuff.co.nz  
  WebReporter: caution2 Show Calling Card  SuperVisor    
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  10 Comments
  
  If ever  
 there were someone who needed forgiveness and healing of his soul, it would be this guy.  
 by: cranky_paranoid     11/02/2009 04:28 AM     
  Sick SOB  
 cranky- I have to agree with you there. Not only did he scam people out of money, he scammed his own church + others out of a half-million dollars AND had people all over worried about him and his bout with cancer.

I don´t know how many people here has been related to, friends with, aquaintances of someone who has had cancer and went through treatment for it. Those that know and especially those that had to deal with it day in and day out knows how draining everything is. To hold their hair when they are getting sick and to have clumps of it falling out, trying to help sooth the areas that are burned from treatment and the worry that they won´t get through it ok and you won´t be able to be strong enough to make it through on others.

So many people felt for this man on all sorts of levels, remembering their own pain, crying tears of sadness for this douche and all the time he was a scammer who had a thing for the slots(or whatever was his game)and screw who gets hurt or in the way.

"And he welcomed Marychurch back to the church.
"He did a lot of administration and got things together at the church ready for mass".

You have GOT to be kidding me! I have a feeling that the parishoners surely won´t feel that way. Did anyone else see that tiny church he attended? That wouldn´t be the mud room or the coat room in most Catholic churches up here.

He is a creep and his fellow parishioners hopefully won´t be fooled again.
 
 by: TaraB     11/02/2009 05:10 AM     
  Pretty sure  
 this disqualifies you from being a trustworthy person.  
 by: nephew     11/02/2009 03:33 PM     
  @nephew  
 everyone deserves a second chance. :p 
 by: John E Angel     11/02/2009 04:43 PM     
  I´d  
 have no idea of how to get out of the gambling addiction, i don´t know at all wether it´s possible to get out of it wh i´m in that for long, it is like as if i´d pour water into the river. 
 by: vizhatlan     11/02/2009 04:52 PM     
  It gets worse  
 I am from the parish concerned and have known this man for years. Several parishioners had major concerns about whether his story was true, but they were belittled and ignored by priests who accused them of rumour-mongering and said it would be their fault if such a dedicated parishioner were to give up his cancer fight and die.

He managed to obtain a ´loan´ from a man who´d gotten a payout for childhood sexual abuse - he got about $10,000 of a $15,000 payout. Of course the money was never seen again.

He would fly down to Christchurch in the South Island for ´treatment´ and arrange for a local to drop him off and pick him up later at the hospital - he´d then immediately get a taxi from the hospital to the casino and back again later with noone the wiser.

The $500,000 total is unconfirmed, but he has been charged now with around $300,000 with more forthcoming. The churches didn´t give him much themselves - it was individual people who were guilted into loaning out their life savings in some cases.

Words cannot convey how revolted the parish is about this. And worst of all? I work in Auckland not far from the District Court, and what did I see at lunchtime today? This guy on the way to Auckland Skycity Casino. So of course he is still a slave to the slots.

Maybe a good few years in prison will get his head right, or protect a few more vulnerable people at least.
 
 by: hone honiara   11/13/2009 03:46 AM     
  That´s crazy, hone  
 Thanks for stopping here to share that, very interesting.

There´s a movie coming out soon called "For Christ´s Sake" and involves a man who asks his brother, a priest, for church money to treat his cancer, but in reality uses it not to gamble, but to finance a porn movie that his brother is the star of, without him knowing somehow.
 
 by: caution2  SuperVisor   11/17/2009 03:29 AM     
  And meanwhile  
 There are single parent families with children that are going homeless. 
 by: luxfestinus     11/17/2009 03:41 AM     
  Re Hone  
 I´m an advocate for Gerard Marychurch when you saw Gerard last Friday he had jsut left his Lawyers office and was heading to an appointment at the office of Sky City Host Responsiblity. Mr marychurch has a self ban from Sky City and local gambling venues which were put in place some weeks ago and at present he has reached 41 days of no gambling. Over the past weeks Mr Marychurch has had some very positive and caring support from a large number of the Parishioners from Saints Fancis and Therese. Mr Marychurch is under going treatment for problem gambling and has shown a lot of remorse for those he has hurt. This includes the people that he has been in contact with and expressed his sincere apologies. Please remember that Mr Marychurch has faced upto his situation and will continue to do so.

Toboy
 
 by: toboy   11/20/2009 01:57 AM     
  Re Re Hone  
 Toboy: glad to hear I was mistaken, and 41 days free of gambling is a start at least. I do not have an opinion either way on the man´s level of remorse - I guess it´s up to the victims to decide whether it is proportionate to the suffering inflicted upon them.

Thanks for leaving your note in any event.
 
 by: hone honiara   11/20/2009 02:31 AM     
 
 
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