A former pastor who embezzled more than €125,000 from his own church in Co Kildare has had his six-and-a-half-year prison sentence reduced by one year on appeal.
The Court of Appeal heard on Friday that Ebenezer Oduntan (60), a former pastor of the City of David Church in Co Kildare, has made no restitution either to the congregation he defrauded or Revenue.
Oduntan was convicted of 87 theft and fraud-related offences following a three-week trial at Naas Circuit Criminal Court in March, 2024.
The church, which has charitable status, is a branch of a Nigerian-based Pentecostal church.
Oduntan was sentenced to seven years' imprisonment, with the final six months suspended, by Judge Martina Baxter.
Quashing the original sentence and substituting it with the reduced term of six years with six months suspended at the Court of Appeal on Friday, Justice Alexander Owens said the court was of the view that the headline sentence identified by the trial judge was “somewhat too high”, though he described this conclusion as “a rather marginal one”.
He said the offending was “particularly serious”, involving a prolonged fraud against a charity by the person entrusted with its leadership.
“There was a gross breach of trust,” Justice Owens said.
He said that the offences involved substantial sums and improper claims for tax rebates, and noted the victims were not banks or insurance companies but the defendant’s own parishioners.
“The reality is that this man defrauded his own congregation,” he said.
The offences spanned ten years between 2010 and 2020, during which Oduntan was pastor of the church’s Newbridge branch and had responsibility for its day-to-day operations and financial affairs.
He had sole access to and control of the church’s finances between 2012 and 2020.
Oduntan, of Curragh Grange, Newbridge, Co Kildare, faced 73 counts of theft, five charges of deception and nine offences under company law following an investigation by the Corporate Enforcement Authority.
While he initially denied 54 of the charges, he pleaded guilty midway through the trial to 19 counts of theft, five counts of deception and nine charges of providing false information to the Companies Registration Office.
The sentencing court heard that Oduntan withdrew church funds for personal use, including cheques of up to €20,000 made payable to himself.
He admitted to a member of the congregation that he had been “dipping his hand into the church purse”.
Oduntan also inflated donation levels so that a larger rebate would be received by the Church from Revenue under the Charitable Donation Scheme.
None of the stolen funds has been recovered, and Oduntan has not been a member of the church since 2020.
In delivering judgment on Friday, Mr Justice Owens said there was very little mitigation available in this case.
The judge said the difficulty in relation to evidence of previous good character was that Oduntan had abused this status to “embezzle money”.
The judge was also critical of the timing of Oduntan’s guilty pleas, noting that he had made only partial admissions before proceeding to trial.
“The defendant, having made some half-admissions, then put the State to the pin of its collar,” Justice Owens said, adding that an early plea would have saved considerable time and expense.
He further noted that Oduntan had made no effort to reimburse the church or the Revenue for the losses sustained.
Justice Owens set a new headline sentence of seven years, which he then reduced to six years with the final six months suspended to encourage continued rehabilitation.
At the appeal hearing earlier on Friday, Damien Colgan SC, for Oduntan, argued that the original headline sentence of eight years was excessive given his client’s personal circumstances and lack of previous convictions.
He submitted that the trial judge erred in placing the case at the upper range of offending, noting that the total amount involved, approximately €125,000, was lower than in other cases where shorter sentences had been imposed.
He also argued that the suspension of only six months was insufficient.
Jordan Fletcher BL, for the Director of Public Prosecutions, said the offending involved “a substantial breach of trust and fiduciary duty” carried out through “sophisticated means of deception”.
He said Oduntan exploited his status and position as pastor to commit the offences, acted as the sole controller of the church’s finances, and made no restitution to the congregation, the charity, or Revenue.