FORT PIERCE, Fla.--According to Stuart News, a Fort Pierce minister was tried and convicted this month for working too hard for too little pay.

The Rev. Toby Philpart's sentence: To spend five days and four nights with his wife, Sonjia, aboard a cruise ship plying the Caribbean.

Church member and mock trial organizer Anita Bush said Philpart's crime went unpunished for far too long.

"He's a full-time pastor and we don't pay him a big salary," said Bush, president of the pastor's aid ministry at New Mount Zion Missionary Baptist Church in Fort Pierce, where Philpart has ministered for 12 years.

Bush said that Philpart has had to take on other jobs to make ends meet.

"He knows how to work and make money, but we felt he was involved in so much, he needed a little rest," she said.

So Bush organized a mock trial, complete with local attorneys, a retired judge and bailiff, a jury and witnesses, who testified about all the good works Philpart had done for them or family and friends.

"I brought the case against him, that he needed a rest, he had been working too hard," Bush said.

The defense attorney declined to offer a defense.

"About five minutes into it I realized they were going to sentence me to something that was going to be a benefit," Philpart said. He was sentenced to a Royal Caribbean cruise.

Philpart said he was dumbfounded. "I've been in church my entire life and I had never seen anything like this before," the preacher said. "I've heard of churches sending pastors on vacation, but the way they delivered this and kept it secret was amazing."

Philpart said he returned to Fort Pierce with a renewed energy and an even deeper love for his 150-member congregation.

"I get teary-eyed when I start thinking about how they showed love to me," Philpart said.