A man who stole three bronze church bells to sell on for scrap has been jailed for nine months. The bells were taken in July 2009 from a locked compound at the back of Mount Argus church in Terenure, Dublin. They had been valued at €15,000 each. They were stored there with five other bells because they were to undergo refurbishment.
Garda Stephen Byrne told Paul Carroll, prosecuting, that gardaí stopped the vehicle Hugh Cash was a passenger in after they noticed the van was “very low down on the road”.
They spotted the bells in the back which Cash claimed had come from the ruins of an old church in Tallaght.
He was arrested and interviewed but later admitted that he had stolen the bells, which he had intended to sell on for scrap.
Cash (30), Sundale Avenue, Tallaght, pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.