Barcelos fake priest accused of theft of works of art and cultural religious, fraud, forgery and usurpation of functions, was arrested on Thursday announced the Judicial Police. After an initial interrogation, the Court of Criminal Lisbon ~ you applied the measure of coercion more serious, the probation.
Man, 40, who already has other arrests for impersonating a priest and practice from scams have recently returned to these crimes, and even motivated to issue an alert for the Archdiocese Braga.
On Friday, the Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Braga warned in a statement that the fake priest Augustine Charity Coutinho had returned to the churches of the district and stolen “valuables”. In one of the churches, the Lady of-a-Branca, Braga, introduced himself as Victor but the archdiocese admitted that it could “provide any other name.” To parishioners, was remembered that the man in question had already been charged and convicted of “circumvent dozens of people, through the improper various religious ceremonies in the Dioceses of Porto and Braga.” Among these ceremonies were weddings and christenings.
Augustine Charity has a long road of crime of usurpation of functions and swindling. Came to be convicted in at least two situations, in January 2010, to three years and six months in prison for aggravated fraud continued after having cheated an elderly couple of Santão, Felgueiras, and in October 2011, two years and six months in prison, on probation, the Tribunal Judicial de Santo Tirso, also for having defrauded an elderly woman.
Since 1999
criminal activities that are known to man, natural Aguiar, Barcelos, who left a trail of lies, false promises and burglaries at churches in Lisbon, Braga, Valença, Viana do Castelo and Aveiro. Was now being held in Lisbon, confirmed the PUBLIC João Oliveira, coordinator of criminal investigation of the Judicial Police.
There is, for now, can determine the total value of goods stolen by cultural and religious Augustine Charity, or the amounts raised through peditórios of false and forged signatures on checks. In the case of the stolen objects in churches, “we are talking about cultural property whose monetary value was never calculated,” said John Oliveira. The researcher also acknowledges that some parishes were unaware of thefts after being contacted by authorities during the investigation and that other, now with the arrest, check whether any parts lost.
these investigations, deriving “a few months”, the Judiciary confirmed that the man took “several false identities and qualities, including that of a Catholic priest, was introduced in several churches” and stole “tens of goods and objects pertaining to religion, which subsequently transacted, mostly on the illicit market. “
Through close relationships with future victims, between priests and parishioners, Augustine Charity created conditions to make false peditórios, one aimed to bring a disabled child to a treatment in Cuba, which has rendered him a few thousand euros. Another crime that is suspect is counterfeit checks to purchase goods which then resold.
“This is a person with a wandering life, no known address, which goes adrift, hampering its location,” says João Oliveira.
News updated at 19h21 adds that fake priest is in custody
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