Article content continued

The theft occurred over an eight-year period beginning in 2003, when Houlahan took over duties as the chair of the cemetery committee. The veteran lawyer had previously volunteered as the chair of the pastoral council for the parish, court heard.

His duties as chair included managing the cemetery’s finances, including depositing money into a perpetual care and maintenance fund that would provide for the continued maintenance of the cemetery following the purchase of a plot and burial. A percentage of each sale was supposed to go into the fund, but Houlahan never once made a payment, leaving the account short $173,695, Semenoff said.

Houlahan also neglected to file tax returns or financial reports as he was legally required to do during his time as the chair of the cemetery committee, court heard.

The wheels came off the scheme in the summer of 2011, when Benoit Bariteau, the director of cemeteries for the archdiocese, contacted Houlahan about the deficiencies. Houlahan assured Bariteau everything was in order, despite the lack of financial reports. Bariteau persisted however, and asked parish priest Stephen Amesse to track down the records. Houlahan eventually provided the records in August 2011, and was removed from his duties.

Before handing the records over, Houlahan deposited a cheque for $3,435.11 — the exact amount he had paid to his own personal credit card to cover the purchase of a device used to lower coffins into a grave that was being used by a cemetery services company that Houlahan was running with his son. (The actual cost of the lowering device was $3,015.67, although Houlahan wrote a cheque from the cemetery account that covered the exact amount of the outstanding balance on his credit card, court heard.)