Mihai Birtu of Port Street, Evesham charged in connection with lead thefts from churches in England
A fourth man has been charged in connection with lead thefts from churches across England.
Mihai Birtu, 23, has been charged with 21 offences of theft of lead from churches around the country, including Lincolnshire.
Birtu of Port Street, Evesham was arrested by police in July and remanded in custody after appearing at Nottinghamshire Magistrates' Court.
His case was transferred to Lincoln Crown Court where he appeared by video-link with a Romanian interpreter.
No pleas were entered and Judge John Pini QC adjourned the case for a plea and trial preparation hearing on October 9.
Birtu is one of the four men arrested after a joint police investigation by several forces into lead thefts from churches across England.
Among those counties hit hardest by the thefts were Lincolnshire, Cambridgeshire, Somerset and East Yorkshire.
Three other men have already pleaded guilty to their roles in the thefts and will be sentenced at Lincoln Crown Court on October 9. They are Paul Buica, 25, of George Street in Birmingham; Constantin Motescu, 32, of Stebbing in Sutton Hill, Telford; and Luarentiu Sucea, 38, of George Street in Birmingham.
Among those churches which were targeted in Lincolnshire were St Nicholas in Normanton, St Lawrence in Tallington and St Andrew in Billingborough.
All the offences occurred between May 2018 and March this year.
In 2019, Lincolnshire Police set up a dedicated team to work with the Diocese of Lincoln after a spike in lead theft cases.
Chief inspector, Phil Vickers, said: "During 2019 Lincolnshire Police worked with the Lincoln Diocese and individual church premises across the county, providing site-specific advice to 53 premises as well as broader guidance to prevent offending in addition to several hundred site visits that had been carried out previously.
"The impact of these offences goes well beyond the significant financial cost.
"Communities have felt a great sense of loss at the damage caused to their heritage, and increased vulnerability due to the rural nature of many of the premises.
"We know that in addition to the loss of lead, extensive damage has been caused to the fabric of the buildings by water ingress during bad weather.
"We continue to work with rural communities to prevent offending, and encourage anyone seeing or hearing anything suspicious at Heritage Sites, particularly at night but also during the day, to contact police immediately."
