Man arrested in connection with theft from church in Rushton Spencer

A man has been arrested in connection with the theft of paving slabs from a church in Rushton Spencer on Monday.

Police were called just after 10am on 9 December to reports that a large amount of York stone paving slabs had been taken from St Lawrence’s Church sometime overnight.

Officers were called again at 9.30pm last night (11 December) after a witness spotted two men removing gravel and more slabs from the church grounds. On arrival officers saw the van leaving and followed the van towards Cheshire. The vehicle was stopped by Cheshire Police and a 46-year-old man from Manchester was arrested on suspicion of theft and remains in custody at this time.

Chief Inspector Mark Thorley said: “A crime such as this is always appalling but at Christmas time even more so. The community are understandably very upset by this incident and we want to reassure them that we are taking this very seriously. Local officers are continuing to investigate both crimes.”

Anyone with any information should message Staffordshire Police on Facebook or Twitter quoting incident number 808 of December 11, call 101 or alternatively contact Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.