Pastor preys on the innocent and pays the price

Pieter van Rooyen on the Life Church website.

ISLE OF MAN - "The light that shines farthest shinest brightest at home," declared wealthy South African pastor Pieter van Rooyen on the website.

The message enticed hundreds to sign up to the church he and his wife established on the Isle of Man.

Several impoverished South Africans took him at his word and pitched up at the couple's luxurious house in the coastal town of Onchan, the island's so-called "sunset city".

But van Rooyen did not have their spiritual enlightenment in mind. After flying the illegal immigrants in from South Africa, the former senior Barclays Bank executive put them to work renovating his house on slave wages of about £1.36 ($4.13) an hour.

The labourers lived in the house for about three months while they worked on it, were made to work up to 72 hours a week and were not allowed out unaccompanied.

This week, the charismatic preacher paid for his crime. Despite a recent posting on his Life Church website asking his followers to "pray for a miracle", he was sent to prison for three months for facilitating illegal immigration.

High Bailiff Michael Moyle, sitting in Douglas, the island's capital, told van Rooyen that he would have to pay costs of £1500 ($4500) or face an additional three months in prison.

Van Rooyen was headhunted in May last year to advise Barclays' clients seeking to invest offshore. But with his wife Sonja he also formed the Life Church, an offshoot of a church formed by Pastor Robert Maasbach in Folkestone. The website encourages visitors to buy CD sets and to receive a free gift if they spend £10 or more.

On the same site, van Rooyen places himself directly in the lineage of "Noah, Moses, Abraham, Daniel, Joshua and Caleb".

The pastor, a business lecturer with several degrees from South African universities, also had an eye on his home improvements. He made contact last August with Jacobus Frederick Visser, 43, who owned a building company in South Africa, and they hatched their plan to get cheap South African labour to renovate his home.

Van Rooyen provided a false invitation which suggested the men were to take part in a business course and, on that basis, they were allowed to enter Britain via Gatwick before travelling on to the Isle of Man.

Stuart Neale, prosecuting, said van Rooyen wanted "a cheap deal" and provided tickets and documentation to get the workers there.

Locals reported the workers' presence in January and police and immigration services raided the property.

- INDEPENDENT