Thieves target church’s heater oil

Mar 22 2008 by Ben Guy, The Journal

IT used to be lead slates that thieves would take from church roofs, then there was a spate of silver stolen direct from the alter.

But now it seems crooks are targeting the oil from the heating tank.

The congregation at St Cuthbert’s Church, Bellingham, Northumberland were left feeling decidedly chilly last week after the mysterious disappearance of a large amount of oil from their underground tank.

Police are now investigating whether the oil was stolen amid fears that the thieves may have targeted other properties.

They are considering the possibility it was a leak, but similar shortages may have occurred in other tanks in the area.

Church warden John Stevenson first noticed that the oil was missing after arriving at church two Sundays ago to find it unusually cold.

He said: “Normally the heating for the Sunday service comes on Saturday night, but on that morning it was pretty cold and there was only a little bit of heat in the pipes.

“At first we thought there was a problem with the boiler. We checked and it was ok, but when we fired it up again it just shut back down again straight away. So we dipped the oil, and that was when we found it was just down to the gunge in the bottom.

“We put 1,000 litres of oil into the tank in January, about £500 worth, and you would expect that to last to the back end of this year.” And Mr Stevenson feared that the oil had been stolen as he had heard that other people in the village had encountered the same problem.

He said: “The pipe is underground so normally you don’t smell any oil. But when I first went to check it noticed it was missing there was a smell of oil, which I suspect means someone has taken it out.”

Bellingham councillor Frank Mattinson said: “About a year to 18 months ago there was a problem with oil going missing, and they never found out who it was. This is certainly something that has happened before.”

Anyone with any information should contact PC Andy Ferguson on 0845 6043043.