LISTENING sympathetically to his troubled parishioners, Father Antoine Videau portrayed himself as a caring priest.
But he was stealing money from collection boxes and charity
donations and was convicted yesterday of fraud after amassing a
£2million fortune over 20 years.
Videau, 64, also lived with a young mistress in a luxury villa and
lavished the stolen cash on a string of women he drove around Europe in
his red Ferrari.
The playboy padre defrauded nuns by renting out rooms in their
convent as holiday flats and he spent church funds on a “cultural
pilgrimage” to Las Vegas, the Sin City.
He had 28 bank accounts for the cash and even siphoned off £500,000
fromthe estate of an archbishop after making himself the executor of the
will.
Videau, the parish priest in Calacuccia on the French
Mediterranean island of Corsica, cleverly concealed his wild life from
his trusting flock.
Prosecuting lawyer Angeline Tomasi said the priest “did not know the
difference between right and wrong” and described him as “manipulative
and predatory”.
She added: “He broke Church laws and the country’s
laws.”
Videau was first convicted and handed a two-year prison sentence in
May last year but was freed in December with permission to appeal.
But a higher court in Bastia upheld the conviction Wednesday and re-imposed the jail term.
SIC: TM/UK