UNITED KINGDOM
The Guardian
Press Association
Thursday 23 July 2015
A Church of England vicar has gone on the run as he was convicted of pocketing thousands of pounds handed over as fees for weddings, funerals and graveyard memorials.
Simon Reynolds, 50, went out for lunch and did not come back, an official at Sheffield crown court said. The jury later came back and convicted him on all charges, she said.
Reynolds, of Farnham, Surrey, was accused of keeping fees handed over to him by bereaved families and engaged couples when he was priest-in-charge of All Saints Church in Darton, near Barnsley, South Yorkshire. He should have handed over the money – estimated at £24,000 – to the diocese and the parochial church council, the court heard.
South Yorkshire police said a warrant had been issued for Reynolds’ arrest and officers were actively searching for him. It said in a statement that he had been convicted of four counts of theft, despite his absence at court.
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