Man who stole church bells for scrap jailed for nine months

A man who stole three bronze church bells from a church in Dublin to sell on for scrap has been jailed for nine months.

The bells were taken from a locked compound at the back of Mount Argus Church in Terenure and had been valued at €15,000 each.

They were stored there with five other bells because they were to undergo refurbishment.

Thirty-year-old Hugh Cash of Sundale Avenue in Tallaght pleaded guilty at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court to stealing the bells on July 5, 2009.

He had 40 previous convictions.