Church's oil tank raided three times
by Hayley Robinson
They say bad luck comes in
threes and that was certainly the case for one church which was
targeted by thieves.
St Peter and St Paul’s
Church, in Borden, has been left counting the cost after diesel
used for the building’s heating system was stolen from an outside
storage tank.
It was first tampered with
between 6.30pm on Saturday, December 22 and 5.30pm the following
day when it is thought more than £450 worth of fuel was
taken.
More was stolen between
Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
On New Year’s Eve the
culprits were unsuccessful in their attempt after they were
disturbed by Father John Lewis. He was inside the church at the
time but went outside to investigate after hearing a
noise.
The church is now looking at
a bill of £3,000, equivalent to a year’s worth of fuel, to have a
steel cage built around the tank to prevent future
thefts.
Fr Lewis said: "It’s
difficult to say exactly how much has been taken but we reckon in
total it’s as much as 1,800 litres which equates to about
£1,026.
"I think what some criminals
would do is take the lot and either use it for their own business
or sell it on, but what I think happened on this occasion is
someone with two or three vehicles fills up enough jerry cans to
fill their cars then comes back when they’re low on fuel- we’re
almost like a filling station for them.
"When I’ve spoken to people
in the village about it there is this great sense of ‘how can
people steal from the church?’.
"It seems to be the people
who live in the village but who don’t come to church who have been
most irritated by it.
"Security lighting, CCTV and
an alarm which goes inside the tank and sounds when the levels drop
faster than normal are also being looked at by the parochial church
council."
Call police on 101 with
any information quoting references XY/039339/12 for the December
22/23 incident, XY/039527/12 for December 25/26 or XY/040007/12 for
December 31
11/01/13
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