Lead thieves jailed over late night Norfolk church raids

The three men - Laurentiu Rebeca and cousins Gigi Prundaru and Madalin Gabriel Prundaru - are thought to have targeted as many as 40 churches in a seven-month spree spanning 10 counties.

They were finally caught after a churchwarden spotted them leaving the scene of one of their raids and followed them in a car, providing police with updates to allow officers to intercept them.

When they were stopped, all three were packed into the front seats of their car, with the rear full of lead sheets.

A section of the roof at All Saints Church in Scottow was damaged during one of the attempted thefts (Image: Newsquest)

The men were arrested, sparking a gruelling six-year police investigation - Operation Dastardly - which eventually unravelled their trail of destruction.

The gang were based in the Edmonton area of London but between April and November 2016 carried out raids over a huge area of southern and eastern England, targeting rural and isolated churches.

They would commit the offences in the early hours and then travel back to the capital where they would weigh in their stolen lead at a scrap yard.

In total, they received around £70,000 for the metal - but the damage caused to the historic buildings was more than £1.25m.

In October and November 2016, they travelled to Norfolk where they stole from St Andrew's, in Blickling, St Andrew's, in Deopham, St Benedict's, in Horning, and All Saints in Scottow. 

Saint Andrews Church in Deopham was targeted by the group on their raids through Norfolk (Image: Newsquest)

They also stole from two churches in Suffolk at around the same time: St Mary's, in Yaxley, and All Saints, Great Glemham.

Other areas covered by their crimewave include Northamptonshire (11 offences); Thames Valley (eight); Leicestershire (five); Cambridgeshire (five); Bedfordshire (two) Wiltshire (one) and Hampshire (one).

READ MORE: Church in town centre has masonry damaged in vandalism attack

They were eventually caught in Lincolnshire (five offences), where the churchwarden spotted them.

DC Andrew Woodcock, who led the investigation, said: "The courage of the churchwarden and his wife gave us a huge head start. Without that, it would have taken us longer to track and find them."

During the investigation, Gigi Prundaru and Rebeca fled overseas, triggering an international search.

Gigi Prundaru (left) and Laurentiu Rebeca were sentenced to a combined ten years in prison (Image: Lincolnshire Police)

Detectives eventually found Rebeca hiding in Austria and later discovered Gigi Prundaru in Romania.

They were both arrested in November 2019 on European Arrest Warrants and extradited back to the UK where they pleaded guilty to a combined 55 offences.

Police were able to piece together their case through a combination of mobile phone data, ANPR evidence and records of payments to the scrap yard.

Central to the investigation was a mobile phone seized from Gigi Prundaru which contained an archive of material relating to research on churches, including Google street view images.

From these images 17 different churches were identified, many of which had suffered thefts.

The roof at Saint Mary's Church in Souldern was stripped down to the wooden cladding (Image: Lincolnshire Police)

Evidence on the phone also included data extracted from a satellite navigation image and searches on hundreds of churches.

Gigi Prundaru - who was identified as the main organiser - was sentenced to six years and one month in prison, and Laurentiu Rebeca was sentenced to four years and 10 months in 2019. 

The third group member, 26-year-old Madalin Gabriel Prundaru, from Redbridge Lane East, Ilford, was not convicted until last week, when the full scale of the gang's operations was revealed for the first time.

Madalin Gabriel Prundaru, who was found guilty of 18 lead theft charges, appeared at Lincoln Crown Court and received a 24-month community order.

All of the lead on the vestry roof of Saint Andrews Church in Blickling was stolen (Image: Newsquest)

The judge also awarded £350 of public money to the churchwarden who was said to be instrumental in catching the group.

Altogether the group was charged with 100 thefts or attempted thefts from 40 different churches, resulting in 73 convictions.

DC Woodcock said: "This was a painstaking enquiry into large-scale organised criminality. 

READ MORE: Town hall has windows smashed and lead stolen

"The thieves caused significant distress to the local communities of the churches they targeted.

"Some of these churches, years later, are still completing repairs."

Mark Harrison, from Historic England, said: "Removing large areas of lead or copper from rooves has a significant emotional and financial impact on those communities who care for and maintain our historic church buildings.

"This form of criminal behaviour can result in irreversible loss and damage which is why tackling this problem is so important."