Tivyside | Archive | 2003 | January | 9
From the Tivyside Advertiser, first published Thursday 9th Jan 2003.
Over 140 west Wales churches were targeted by Britain's most prolific church burglar in the lead-up to his arrest.
During his nine-month military style campaign Christopher Coulthard, 40, raided over 500 churches nationwide, including 62 in Pembrokeshire, 53 in Ceredigion and 28 in Carmarthenshire.
Wearing a camera bag to look like a tourist, he would go equipped with knitting needles and a surgeon's scissors to pick locks and extract notes and coins from collection boxes. He never took religious artefacts such as candelsticks or crucifixes.
His highest haul was £600 but more frequently he'd make off with just a few pounds. He was so methodical that 80 per cent of the churches he'd burgled remained unaware that an offence had been committed.
It was only when the Rev Julian Smith of Llanrhystud Church , near Aberystwyth, became suspicious of him and noted his car registration number last September that he was eventually arrested.
Describing his offences as 'disgusting and outrageous' at Swansea Crown Court last Friday, Recorder Vivian Manning Davies sentenced Coulthard to four years imprisonment.
© Newsquest Media Group 2008