Kelvin Kleinovas receives suspended sentence in priest’s €50,000 scam case

This report is a localnews.ie summary based on public court reporting and records; sources are listed below.

Kelvin Kleinovas received an 18-month sentence, suspended for three years on payment of €2,000 for a parish priest who lost almost €50,000 in a broadband connection fee scam. Judge Orla Crowe imposed the sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court. The proceedings were reported on 5 March 2026.

Kleinovas pleaded guilty to having the proceeds of crime in his bank account in August 2019. He had allowed €10,000 stolen from the priest’s account to be lodged into his own account.

Garda Bartholomew McCarthy said the priest had received a call indicating it was from a broadband company and was told to pay a once-off €5 connection fee online. The priest tried to make the payment more than 40 times over four days, resulting in almost €50,000 being stolen.

Kleinovas was arrested in September 2021. He claimed he had been approached to hand over his bank details for payment, but said he was never paid. McCarthy agreed with defence counsel Marc Thompson that Kleinovas’s involvement started and stopped with providing his bank details.

The judge noted that Kleinovas had carried out the offence for gain and had previous convictions, including one for money laundering. The priest said the theft had a devastating impact on him and that he believed the bank had failed him as a customer. McCarthy confirmed none of the stolen money was recovered. Thompson said the priest had received no recompense from the bank, and that Kleinovas, who had written him an apology, was of limited financial means.