This article is from the source 'bbc' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-33690041
The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 1 | Version 2 |
|---|---|
| Thieving on-the-run Barnsley vicar Simon Reynolds jailed | Thieving on-the-run Barnsley vicar Simon Reynolds jailed |
| (about 2 hours later) | |
| A vicar who went on the run after being convicted of pocketing more than £16,500 of church fees has been jailed for almost three years. | A vicar who went on the run after being convicted of pocketing more than £16,500 of church fees has been jailed for almost three years. |
| Simon Reynolds, from Farnham in Surrey, did not return to Sheffield Crown Court on Thursday and a manhunt was launched. | |
| Reynolds, who was found guilty of four counts of theft, handed himself in at a police station in Sheffield on Monday. | Reynolds, who was found guilty of four counts of theft, handed himself in at a police station in Sheffield on Monday. |
| He was vicar at All Saints Church in Darton, near Barnsley in South Yorkshire, when the thefts took place. | He was vicar at All Saints Church in Darton, near Barnsley in South Yorkshire, when the thefts took place. |
| At Sheffield Crown Court, Judge Julian Goose QC sentenced him to 30 months for stealing church fees and an additional two months for breaching his bail. | At Sheffield Crown Court, Judge Julian Goose QC sentenced him to 30 months for stealing church fees and an additional two months for breaching his bail. |
| 'Abused parishioners trust' | 'Abused parishioners trust' |
| The 50-year-old disgraced vicar took thousands of pounds of fees handed over to the church for weddings, funerals and churchyard memorials. | |
| Sentencing him, the judge said: "Reynolds' parishioners had let him into their homes and lives only to have their trust abused." | Sentencing him, the judge said: "Reynolds' parishioners had let him into their homes and lives only to have their trust abused." |
| Reynolds, of Upper Church Lane, fled the country as the jury deliberated last week, but handed himself in to South Yorkshire Police in an arranged appointment. | |
| He had planned to travel to Dublin but booked a flight to Dusseldorf, where he stayed with a friend who drove him back, the court heard. | |
| Defence barrister Alasdair Campbell told the court: "He told me that he was not, in fact, fleeing from the process but he was fleeing from what, personally, he was feeling." | |
| Money from three of the thefts should have been sent to the Wakefield Diocesan Board of Finance for marriages, funerals and graveyard memorials, the jury heard. | Money from three of the thefts should have been sent to the Wakefield Diocesan Board of Finance for marriages, funerals and graveyard memorials, the jury heard. |
| The fourth count related to payments for monuments that should have gone to the parochial church council. | The fourth count related to payments for monuments that should have gone to the parochial church council. |
| 'Deplorable vicar' | |
| The judge said he had identified 32 individual marriages for which Reynolds appeared to have pocketed the fees. | |
| Prosecutors said it was difficult to say how much he had stolen because of the "appalling state" of his book-keeping, but estimated it was more than £24,000. | |
| Mr Campbell argued the figure was much lower and the judge settled for "at least" £16,500. | |
| Senior Crown Prosecutor Caroline Tubb said: "It is hard to imagine a more deplorable and flagrant breach of trust than a vicar stealing money from his own parishioners." | |
| Reynolds left Darton in 2013 to be a priest-in-charge in Farnham. He was previously a curate in Exeter and, before that, a minor canon at St Paul's Cathedral in London. |