Police officers spent hours painstakingly reconstructing hundreds of memorial plaques stolen from cemeteries to convict a crooked scrap metal dealer.
Joseph Collier, aged 72, was jailed for fifteen months today for possessing and attempting to receive stolen goods.
They also discovered a bronze dragon stolen from Teddington and a statue of Christ taken from Putney Vale cemetery. Police raided Collier's DSM Scrap Metal Yard in May 2012 after a tip-off from Trading Standards officers.
CCTV footage from the yard showed Collier overseeing the destruction of the plaques using metal-cutting machines.
