A vicar, who was on the watchlist of Interpol after he went on the run while waiting to be convicted of stealing thousands of pounds of church fees, was today sentenced by a UK court to 30 months in jail, a day after he surrendered.
Simon Reynolds, 50, disappeared during a lunch break at Sheffield crown court on July 23 shortly before he was found guilty of four counts of theft.
He stole more than 24,000 pounds of fees given to him for weddings, funerals and graveyard memorials while in charge of All Saints' Church in Darton, near Barnsley.
South Yorkshire police had alerted Interpol, fearing he may have fled to mainland Europe.
But the force said Reynolds, who fled to Dusseldorf, Germany, walked into a police station in Sheffield yesterday and was arrested.
At Sheffield Crown Court, Judge Julian Goose sentenced him to 30 months for stealing church fees and an additional two months for breaching his bail, the BBC reported.
Reynolds's trial heard he had not paid any fees for weddings or funerals to the Wakefield diocesan board of finance for a number of years, despite conducting a number of services during this time.
Sentencing him, the judge said: "Reynolds' parishioners had let him into their homes and lives only to have their trust abused."
The jury was told that the money from three of the thefts should have been sent to the Wakefield Diocesan Board of Finance for marriages, funerals and graveyard memorials. The fourth count related to payments for monuments that should have gone to the parochial church council.
