Garboldisham Methodist Church Steward Avis Wells

A church steward has described stealing a charity box as one of the lowest forms of crime after thieves took the money during a raid on a Norfolk village church.

Avis Wells, a steward at Garboldisham Methodist Church, was counting the cost after thieves broke a rear window at the church in The Street and removed the cardboard box containing £30.

The box was left in a meeting room behind the church chapel for people to put in donations and the money went to a number of good causes including the Nene Valley Christian Family Refuge for domestic abuse victims and the fight against HIV and human trafficking.

The cash also went, with money from other methodist churches, to help good causes abroad, including peacemaking in Israel, Palestine, Libya and Syria, a school in the Cameroon and migrant women in Spain.

Avis said: “I think most people are going to be particularly upset by the fact they have broken into a church. I tend to think it is a bit of a low grade thing to do.”

She did not know what age group the thieves were or how many were involved, but she believed a pane of glass had been smashed to a rear kitchen window and a drain pipe then used to get leverage to get through the window, as the pipe was found broken off the wall.

She added once inside a blackcurrant drink was stolen from the kitchen before the thieves made their way through a door to the meeting room where the charity box was sitting.

She did not know how they left the building, but said nothing had been touched within the main chapel itself.

The incident happened between 9.10pm on March 13 and 2.30pm on March 15.

Anyone with information in connection to the theft should phone PC Cherie Smith at Thetford police on 101 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555111.