Church representatives unite with police to tackle metal crime wave

More than 120 church representatives across Northamptonshire took part in talks with police last week to discuss how to tackle the alarming number of lead thefts.

In September, 10 churches in the west of the county alone were the victim of lead thefts, as churches remain an easy target for thieves.

During the police meeting delegates were given advice on how to prevent thefts and what measures were possible and appropriate to the circumstances or budget of each individual church.

Various options included installing CCTV with infra-red facility, as well as using lead substitute products.

Northamptonshire's Deputy Chief Constable Davina Logan told the BBC that a senior investigator had been appointed to focus police action, and officers had been targeting scrap yards and other potential outlets for stolen metal.

Hundreds of churches across Britain are facing a crime wave as thieves wage war against church buildings by stealing millions of pounds worth of metal to ship to other parts of the world to take advantage of huge demand for metal.

Thousands of properties, which include other historic buildings as well as churches, have fallen victim to organised gangs who steal from vulnerable sources to sell on to crooked metal merchants.

These dealers are then believed to ship the stolen material overseas to countries such as China, Dubai and India where there is a struggle to satisfy booming manufacturing and building markets.

Ecclesiastical Insurance, a leading Christian insurance company that covers a majority of Church of England buildings throughout Britain, said lead thefts had more than trebled in the UK, and copper thefts had multiplied by 10 times over the past two years.

Chris Pitt, Ecclesiastical PR Manager, reported: "These people have to be organised because of the amounts they are getting away with. These buildings will never be the same again once they've been stripped in this way."

Ruthless gangs are also ripping lightning conductors from spires using towropes and vehicles, while other thieves have even gone as far as stealing church bells from spires.

One Wolverhampton vicar, whose church earlier this year was targeted by thieves three times in two weeks, had desperately called on church neighbours to help protect the much loved building.

In the first attack at Holy Trinity Church in Heath Town, Wolverhampton, thieves stole lightning conductors. A week later they stole ladders belonging to building contractors and on 30 April it was discovered that thieves had returned to steel lead flashing.

The thefts took place as the church underwent a £200,000 renovation project to repair stonework on the tower and spire, replace guttering and make repairs to the church clock.

The Vicar of Heath Town, the Rev David Vestergaard, said: "It is very discouraging for a congregation who have given generously and sacrificially to enable us to carry out this renovation.

"We are blessed with a very attractive building but it is expensive to maintain and most of our congregation are not well off."