Sacked church charity worker awarded £8,000 after dispute over ‘priest's affair’

Provided by Metro Caroline Marsland worked for a food bank operating out of St Augustine’s Scottish Episcopal Church in Dumbarton (Picture: Picasa 3.0)

A church charity worker who claimed she was sacked for revealing that a married priest had an affair with a ‘vulnerable’ parishioner has been awarded £8,000 in compensation. 

Caroline Marsland was ‘angry, upset and disgusted’ that the clergyman, identified only as ‘DE’, was allowed to return to work at St Augustine’s Scottish Episcopal Church in Dumbarton. 

Despite being told to keep the priest’s alleged behaviour a secret, she confided in a friend, an employment tribunal in Glasgow heard. 

Five months later, Mrs Marsland, a project co-ordinator for a food bank run by the church earning £24,000 per year, was made redundant. 

She later sued the Food For Thought food bank, claiming the real reason she had lost her job was because she had blown the whistle on DE. 

Although the tribunal ruled her disclosures were not the principal reason behind the decision, they awarded her £8,000 after concluding she had been unfairly dismissed. 

The tribunal heard the priest’s alleged behaviour came to light when the partner of the unnamed woman, identified as AB, complained to the diocese. 

In their written ruling, they note: ‘[Mrs Marsland] was shocked by the complaint against DE. She had strong views about DE as a married man having a relationship with a client. 

‘She considered the client to be a vulnerable adult. She felt protective towards AB. She felt let down by DE. She was angry and upset. She felt disgusted.’ 

Mrs Marsland’s relationship with DE and other churchgoers later became ‘strained’ when the cleric was cleared of any wrongdoing following an investigation and returned to work in August 2018. 

Various meetings with DE to discuss their working relationship ‘did not go well’ and Mrs Marsden told him she intended to resign from the charity and stopped going to the church. 

The panel heard she suggested the priest should step down as chairman, while DE accused her of ‘causing division in the church’ and recommended that ‘as she was thinking of leaving anyway it was time for her to find another job’. 

While signed off with work-related stress, Mrs Marsland confided all she knew in a friend, despite requests to keep the information confidential. 

She returned to work after DE stepped down in December 2018, but it was decided at a committee meeting in January 2019 that the charity no longer needed a full-time project co-ordinator as most of Mrs Marsland’s work could be done by volunteers. 

The decision was made to terminate her contract and rely on unpaid workers, but the committee members mistakenly believed Mrs Marsland was self-employed. 

The tribunal therefore found the dismissal lacked a ‘fair procedure’ as she was not considered an employee with employment protection rights. 

In March 2019, Mrs Marsland’s sister published a post on social media criticising the charity and saying she had been ‘fired because she refused to be complicit in a cover up’. 

That was the claim Mrs Marsland brought to the employment tribunal – that she had been unfairly sacked for whistleblowing. 

However, the tribunal ruled this was not the case. 

Employment Judge Frances Eccles said: ‘[She] was entitled to disagree with the outcome of the investigation. She was entitled to feel that it was contrary to her moral principles. 

‘This was not sufficient however, to persuade the tribunal that she held a reasonable belief that the information disclosed tended to show that the health and safety of any individual had been, was being or was likely to be endangered. 

‘From the evidence before it, the Tribunal was not persuaded that the principal reason for [Mrs Marsland’s] dismissal was for disclosing information.’ 

They awarded her £8,059.13 in compensation after ruling the dismissal was procedurally unfair.  

Reference: Metro: Sam Corbishley  

Church elder who stole woman's £600,000 ordered to pay back just £1

A church elder who stole a woman's £600,000 life savings and told her it was going into an offshore scheme that didn't exist has been ordered to pay back just £1.

Struck-off solicitor David Vaughan Jones, 83, conned members of his congregation out of their money by recommending the bogus plan.

Jones, a founder of the Evangelical Church in Newtown, Powys, posed as a respected tax consultant to lure fellow members of his congregation into the scam.

A court heard businesswoman Sharon Myler was the 'largest single loser', defrauded of £606,000.

Prosecutor James Davis explained how she only realised the scam when he was jailed for other financial frauds.

'He persuaded clients to invest in offshore accounts which he said would provide a much better return than investing in this country,' Mr Davis said.

'But police uncovered no evidence of him ever investing in offshore accounts. It could only be concluded the funds never existed.'

Mold Crown Court heard Miss Myler handed over six separate amounts of ranging from £30,000 to £160,000 to Jones.

But investigators found no trace of the money - and he was ordered just to pay a nominal £1.

'A financial investigation found no assets that could be realised to make any contribution towards that figure,' said Mr Davis.

Provided by Daily Mail Investigators found no trace of the money - and Jones (pictured) was ordered just to pay a nominal £1

Provided by Daily Mail Jones, a founder of the Evangelical Church in Newtown, Powys, posed as a respected tax consultant to lure fellow members of his congregation into the scam

'The defendant is on a private and state pension. His honour is therefore invited to simply make a nominal order of £1 today. Clearly, should any assets materialise in the future, this is a matter that can and should be revisited.'

In a victim impact statement, Ms Myler said: 'David Jones stole my life savings, causing huge financial and personal hardship. He breached my trust, lied constantly and stole a lot of money from me. I had to borrow money from my family which was extremely embarrassing.'

But in reality he had no financial qualifications, and was in fact a disgraced former solicitor who was struck off from The Law Society in the early 1990s.

The court heard 'prominent' Jones used his influence in the church to persuade members to part with large amounts of cash over a 20-year period.

Judge Niclas Parry told Jones, of Llandrinio, Powys, that the money could not be found.

He said: 'It should be put on record that there has been an investigation by officers whose profession it is to investigate these matters.

'Remarkably, bearing in mind how much money was taken, they simply can't find it. It's right to state that the investigation will continue and if assets are found then this order would be revisited.

'There are people still begging me to do something about it, who understandably believe that I've let them down.

'I simply want them to know there are people investigating and have been investigating to see where the remaining money is. These people have suffered such huge losses.' 

Reference: Tom Pyman For Mailonline

Pope approved secret €1m bid to free kidnapped nun, says disgraced cardinal

The Pope approved a secret €1m operation to free a Colombian nun kidnapped in Mali, a disgraced cardinal has claimed.

Reuters The Pope has lifted the cardinal's oath of secrecy so he could answer questions at trial

Sister Gloria Cecilia Narvaez was seized by the Macina Liberation Front, an al Qaeda-linked group, in February 2017 and released last year.

Cardinal Angelo Becciu, who is one of ten defendants on trial accused of corruption, claimed Pope Francis authorised the bid to free her after being told it would cost €1m (£856,000) at most and involve a ransom and setting up a "contact network".

Reuters Cardinal Angelo Becciu was sacked by the Pope in 2020

Ramadan 2022: Thousands joined by mayor for Iftar in Trafalgar Square for last week of fasting

Reference: My London: Callum Cuddeford