A Catholic missionary defrauded the British Department of Social Services out of more than £30,000 in benefits by failing to declare he was a priest, his income and three houses in Northern Ireland, it was claimed yesterday.
It is alleged that Father Daniel Magill (59), who is based in Peterborough, repeatedly and dishonestly misled the DSS as to his true financial circumstances and received benefits including income support and rate and council tax rebates to which he was not entitled.
He described himself to the DSS as unemployed and not in receipt of any declarable income, but when applying for a £4,000 bank loan said he was a Roman Catholic priest, employed by the Roman Catholic Church, in active employment of more than 16 hours a week and whose mortgage-free home was worth £112,000.
Father Magill, March Road, Coates, a member of the Missionaries of Africa, known as the Whitefriars, denies 12 charges from October 1989 to February 1999. He argued he had given himself to God and had a vocation to be a missionary but had no employment with the Whitefriars and received no salary. He did not regard saying Mass or praying as work, and took exception to being a priest being described as work.
He failed to disclose thousands of pounds worth of income including more than £24,000 and more than £4,300 in daily Mass stipends from January 1985 to December 1998. Father Magill, a fund-raiser for the Whitefriars, had an agreement where by he received 25 per cent of everything he raised, the Crown claimed. He failed to declare £28,000 between 1990 and 1999, in addition £250 in expenses, the Crown claimed.
Father Magill also declared on claim forms that he had no property other than his Peterborough home, but inquiries revealed he owned or part-owned a house in Linn Road, Larne, Co Antrim, and two houses in Ballycoose Road, Larne. The case is continuing.