On-the-run thieving Barnsley vicar 'could be in mainland Europe'

A vicar who went on the run as he was convicted of pocketing £24,000 of fees intended for weddings and funerals is believed to have fled to the continent.

Simon Reynolds, of Farnham, Surrey, did not return to Sheffield Crown Court for the verdict on Thursday and a bench warrant was issued for his arrest.

South Yorkshire Police launched a manhunt and has since said Reynolds could have fled to mainland Europe.

He was vicar at All Saints Church in Darton when the thefts happened.

Judge Julian Goose QC said Reynolds had disappeared from court at lunchtime even though his bail rules did not allow him to leave the building.

He was found guilty of four counts of theft in his absence.

The Bishop of Wakefield, the Rt Rev Tony Robinson, said he was concerned for the welfare of Reynolds and urged him to "come back to face the people in Sheffield".

He added: "For someone to abscond in this way they mustn't be in a great mental state and we want to assure Simon that we'll do all we can to support him."

Reynolds, of Upper Church Lane, was accused of keeping an estimated £24,000 of fees handed over by bereaved families and engaged couples when he was priest-in-charge of the church near Barnsley.

The trial had previously heard 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 of theft relates to payments for monuments that should have gone to the parochial church council.

The court was told an investigation showed Reynolds had only passed on a fraction of what he should.

Suspicions were raised after Reynolds left Darton in 2013 to take up a new post in the Diocese of Guildford.