Church left with £30,000 bill as roof lead stolen

Thieves stripped £30,000 worth of lead from a Staffordshire church, two years after parishioners raised the money to replace the roof, a court was told.

But the haul from St Mary's and All Saints Church in Bradley, near Stafford, was seized by police thanks to a quick-witted villager, Stafford Crown Court heard. Hagi Chifor, aged 26, a Romanian immigrant of Broadfield Road, Manchester, admitted theft and was jailed for 12 months.

Neighbour Jonathan Reynolds alerted the police and took the registration number of a van being driven away from the church in the early hours. Officers stopped the van on the M6 near Stoke-on-Trent and found the stolen lead in the back of the vehicle.

Mr Paul Farrow, prosecuting, said Chifor was covered in white dust. When churchwarden David Beech checked the roof, he found a quarter of its lead was missing and there was white dust in the churchyard.

The roof had been replaced two years ago after a fundraising effort, and the stolen lead was valued at £30,000, plus about £3,000 labour for the work to replace it. Chifor also had his van confiscated. Re-corder Edward Coke ordered that the van is sold and the proceeds given to the parochial church council to help pay the bill.

When questioned by police, Chifor said he got a phone call from a friend called Alex, asking him to take his van to Staffordshire to pick up some metal. The lead would have been sold to a scrap dealer in Stockport.

Miss Milena Bennett, defending, said Chifor had a licence to trade as a scrap metal merchant. Chifor had been promised cash and petrol money to pick up the lead, but he knew it was not legitimate.