Church secretary faces $2.5m conversion charge after paying $372,000 in court

Alecia Livermore, a church secretary charged with converting $2.5 million her bishop had put in her care, attended the Kingston and St Andrew Parish Court last Thursday and delivered $372,000 she described as the balance still due.

Livermore, who worked as secretary for the congregation's online ministry, was taken into custody earlier this year and charged with fraudulent conversion.

Before the matter reached court, she is said to have returned $500,000 in one payment and $1.7 million in another.

Vanessa Taylor, appearing for the defence, informed the court that her client had repaid every sum covered by the complaint.

The clerk of court reported that the complainant rejected that position, insisting the money had not been fully tracked. In the complainant's account, a little more than $1 million was still outstanding.

Because the totals conflict, Taylor and the clerk undertook to check the payments and records to establish whether the full amount had been settled.

Prosecutors link the case to a ruptured working relationship between Livermore and the bishop over pay tied to her secretarial duties.

The crown's case is that the bishop lodged funds with Livermore in her private bank account and directed her to move money to different people for him.

She was on a full-time staff arrangement, yet the bishop allegedly left her wages unpaid. After she quit, a heated exchange supposedly took place, and she then cut down contact, pointing to threats.

Even amid that tension, Livermore is accused of carrying on with transfers at the bishop's request. Once dealings between them worsened further, he took the dispute to the police.

Bail for Livermore was continued, and the case was put down for mention on November 5.