A MAN who stole lead from All Saints Church in East Meon church and five other church buildings has been sent to prison for seven years and six months.

Petre Romeo Cazan, of Town Road in London, was snared thanks to phone data, road cameras, and DNA from a cigarette end left on a church roof.

A sentencing hearing on Friday, March 8, at Cambridge Crown Court heard the 42-year-old stole lead from isolated churches during the hours of darkness between June and October 2016. Cazan climbed up drainpipes to the roof before throwing the lead down to the ground. The lead was then taken away in a van or other vehicle waiting nearby.

Not only was lead stolen during the offences, but considerable damage was also caused to the structure of the church roofs and stonework. Cazan’s crime spree began on June 13, 2016, when he targeted All Saints Church in Marsworth, Hertfordshire.

He was linked to the crime after his phone was traced to within 2km of the church, and his car was caught nearby on Automatic Number Plate Recognition (ANPR) cameras on nearby roads at 3.40am.

The next day, a payment for scrap metal of £1,351 was paid into his bank account.

On June 16, Cazan targeted All Saints Church in East Meon and stole lead covering the 60ft by 40ft roof.

He was again traced to the crime through phone cell site data and ANPR cameras.

His phone location was also traced to London Scrap Metal Recycling and a payment of £2,215 from the recycling depot was paid into Cazan’s account.

Then between June 17, 2016, and July 12 he removed lead from five other church roofs. He was arrested in November 2016 and was found guilty of seven charges of theft and criminal damage at Cambridge Crown Court on February 11.