Vicar Swindled Parishioners And Nicked Collection Money In £15,000 Rent Boy Scandal

You Pay My Rent: Andrew Sloane

A gay vicar from swindled three trusting parishioners and stole the collection money at his Knightsbridge church to fund sex with rent boys during a £15,000 scandal.

Andrew Sloane, 63, convinced three female worshippers at St. Paul’s he needed temporary emergency loans, emphasising the need for secrecy throughout.

Last week, as exclusively revealed by Square Mile News, he was sentenced to twelve months imprisonment, suspended for two years and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £115 victim surcharge. 

An emergency parish meeting was called when £3,954.68 in collection money disappeared and CCTV confirmed Sloane took it from the church’s safe.

The disgraced vicar, of St. James Quay, Leeds, appeared at Westminster Magistrates Court where he admitted the offences.  

He pleaded guilty to stealing the church collections between January 3, 2015 and September 6, last year.

Sloane also pleaded guilty to three counts of fraud by false representation on various dates between November 23, 2014 and July 20, last year, namely false claims of a loan.

Day Job: Andrew Sloane

The court heard he is now funded by a charity and has spent much of the last year in Iraq, performing humanitarian work.

The victims, former model Tempe Brickhill, 56, now the President Director General of Japanese fashion designer Issey Miyake’s London business, Paula Kaplan and Helena Quinn were all repaid at the time.

Prosecutor Miss Katie Bryan told the court: “The defendant was funding a lifestyle and using rent boys and living beyond his means.

“He is a vicar of at least thirty-five years and joined St. Paul’s from a parish in Washington, USA.

He asked Ms Brickhill for a £1,500 money transfer and then inflated it to £2,500. “He told her it was to tide him over and he called her several times in order to hurry up the transfer.”

He emailed Ms Kaplan, asking for help paying-off his United States tax bill. “She trusted him completely and transferred approximately eight thousand pounds.

“He asked for secrecy and not to be open within the parish,” added Miss Bryan. 

The third victim received a text from Sloane while attending her friend’s wedding, asking for £500 to be paid into his bank account.

“A few days later she joined a trip to Paris with other parishioners and the defendant and was shocked he ordered expensive meals and wine so soon after asking for the money.”

Examples of emails and texts Sloane sent are: “This is strictly between us as friends” - “I appreciate your discretion” - “I don’t want tittle tattle within the parish.”

Miss Bryan said: “There was a meeting because money was missing from the collections and the safe.

“CCTV shows the defendant taking the money from the church.”

A police enquiry began in July, last year after Sloane had repaid all the fraudulent loans.

Ms Brickhill told officers she was “angry and disappointed” and another victim described Sloane as a “thief and a liar involved in certain practices.”

Sloan’s lawyer Mr. Shaun Murphy told the court: “These offences reflected a personal crisis in his life and all the money was repaid before the police became involved.

“In October 2015 he made a full confession to the church authorities about what had happened.”

A probation officer told the court Sloane showed “contrition and insight” and the offences were due to “personal difficulties.”  

St. Paul’s is Grade II listed Anglican church situated in Wilton Place and completed in1843.

St. Paul’s describes itself as: “A lively twenty-first century church of Anglo-Catholic tradition.”