Over 20 years in jail for church lead thefts gang
Other defendants still sought by the police
Constantin Motescu, Laurentiu Sucea, Paul Buica, and Mihai Birtu have all been jailed. | Photo: Lincolnshire Police
A prolific gang of Romanian men stripped the lead from dozens of rural churches across England causing utter devastation to village communities, a court was told on Wednesday.
The four men 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.
Thefts also occurred from churches in Wiltshire, Suffolk, Leicestershire and Derbyshire.
Billingborough church among dozens targeted by imprisoned gang
| Updated: 19:54, 06 January 2021
A prolific gang stripped the lead from dozens of rural churches across England, causing utter devastation to village communities, a court was told today (Wednesday).
The four men targeted churches from Somerset to North Yorkshire during a two-year crime spree which left churches facing repair bills totalling more than £2million.
The counties hardest hit by the crime spree were Lincolnshire, Somerset, Cambridgeshire and Yorkshire. Significant damage was caused to St Andrew s Church in Billingborough.
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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.
Church roof gang jailed for total of more than 22 years
| Updated: 19:52, 06 January 2021
Four men have been jailed for a combined total of 22 years and seven months for the theft of lead from churches across the country.
The four defendants stripped tonnes of lead from a mixture of Grade 1 and Grade 2 churches between May 2018 and March 2020 â costing 36 churches a combined total of almost £2.1million. The amount the defendants would have made from scrapping the lead would have been much lower than the cost to the churches.
One of the churche roofs after a lead theft. (43861190)
Constantin Motescu (32), of Stebbings, Sutton Hill, Telford, admitted 23 charges of theft.