A ROMANIAN gang who stripped lead from ten Somerset church roofs have been jailed for a combined total of more than 20 years. The four men targeted 36 churches across England over two years, costing them a total of £2.1million in damage and repairs during a two-year crime spree. The local churches included St Peter and St Pauls, South Petherton; St Edward King and Martyr, Goathurst; St Mary s, Glastonbury; St Giles , Bradford-on-Tone; St Andrew and St Mary, Pitminster; Holy Cross, Middlezoy; St Mary s, Barrington; St Peter s, Ilton; St Mary s, Chetserblade; and St John the Baptist, Wellington. They also stole lead from churches during night-time attacks in Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Yorkshire, Dorset, Wiltshire, Suffolk, Leicestershire and Derbyshire.
Gang travelled the country to strip lead from rural churches leaving communities heartbroken
Many are still struggling to find the funds to make the repairs safe
11:41, 7 JAN 2021
Updated
Sign up for our
free newsletter for court stories sent straight to your inboxInvalid EmailSomething went wrong, please try again later.
Subscribe
When you subscribe we will use the information you provide to send you these newsletters. Sometimes they’ll include recommendations for other related newsletters or services we offer. OurPrivacy Noticeexplains more about how we use your data, and your rights. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Thank you for subscribingWe have more newslettersShow meSee ourprivacy notice
A prolific gang who stripped the lead from dozens of rural churches across England were today jailed for a total of 22 years.
The four Romanian men, who were all living in the West Midlands, targeted churches from Somerset to North Yorkshire during a two-year crime spree which left churches facing repair bills totalling more than £2million.
Among those counties hit hardest during the two-year crime spree were Lincolnshire, Somerset, Cambridgeshire and Yorkshire.
The thieves also took lead from churches in Dorset, Wiltshire, Suffolk, Leicestershire and Derbyshire.
In March last year police arrested three of the men, all living in the West Midlands, after a specialist operation involving several forces.
| Updated: 18:56, 06 January 2021
A prolific gang stripped the lead from dozens of rural churches across England, including Billingborough and Normanton, causing utter devastation to village communities, a court was told today (Wednesday).
The four men, who appeared in Lincoln Crown Court, targeted churches from Somerset to North Yorkshire during a two-year crime spree which left churches facing repair bills totalling more than £2 million.
The counties hardest hit by the crime spree were Lincolnshire, Somerset, Cambridgeshire and Yorkshire.
Gallery1
Thefts also occurred from churches in Wiltshire, Suffolk, Leicestershire and Derbyshire.
The gang, who all lived in the West Midlands, were arrested in March 2020 after police set up a special unit to investigate the large number of church lead theft cases.
BBC News
Published
image captionThe affected churches faced a combined repair bill of more than £2m, Lincoln Crown Court was told
Four men who stole lead from more than 20 remote country churches across England have been jailed.
Paul Buica, Constantin Motescu, Luarentiu Sucea and Mihai Birtu targeted the churches, from Dorset to Yorkshire, between 2018 and 2020.
The affected buildings faced a combined repair bill of more than £2m, Lincoln Crown Court was told.
A vicar said the thieves had desecrated his church for a few pounds worth of lead .
Michael Cranmer-Brown, prosecuting, told the court that some of the churches targeted were many centuries old and Grade I-listed .