A Catholic priest in Pottstown improperly used a parish credit card to fund his addiction to such cell phone games as Candy Crush and Mario Kart, rack

Priest stole from a Chester County parish and spent $40K on Candy Crush, other mobile games, police say

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2024-04-30 19:00:05

A Catholic priest in Pottstown improperly used a parish credit card to fund his addiction to such cell phone games as Candy Crush and Mario Kart, racking up more than $40,000 in expenses over the course of three years, according to prosecutors in Chester County.

The Rev. Lawrence Kozak, 51, was charged Thursday with theft and related crimes, according to the affidavit of probable cause for his arrest. He was released after posting $250,000 bail.

His attorney, Joseph Poluka, said he was reviewing the charges and planned to contact prosecutors about the case in the coming days.

Kozak was removed from his position at St. Thomas More Church in Pottstown and placed on administrative leave in November 2022, according to Ken Gavin, a spokesperson for the Archdiocese of Philadelphia. That decision was made, Gavin said, after an investigation into the priest’s spending by the archdiocese’s Office of Parish Services and Support.

Investigators said an accountant working for St. Thomas More discovered “an astronomical amount of Apple transactions” on credit card statements for the church while reviewing their finances in 2022. The purchases began in September 2019, not long after Kozak joined the parish, and ended in July 2022, they said. The Apple ID used to make those purchases was registered to Kozak.