On-the-run Yorkshire vicar hands himself in at Sheffield police station

Simon Reynolds disappeared during a lunch break at Sheffield Crown Court on July 23 shortly before he was found guilty of four counts of theft.

He illegally pocketed more than £24,000 of fees given to him for weddings, funerals and graveyard memorials while priest-in-charge of All Saints Church in Darton, near Barnsley.

South Yorkshire Police alerted Interpol as it was feared the 50-year-old may have fled to mainland Europe.

The force said today: “A warrant was issued for his arrest and a wide-scale search operation was launched.

“The man has since made contact with officers and handed himself in this morning at a Sheffield police station where he was immediately arrested.

“He will remain in police custody until he is due back in court this afternoon. Officers are no longer searching for Simon Reynolds.”

Senior clergy last week appealed for Reynolds, of Farnham, Surrey, to hand himself in, including the Right Reverend Tony Robinson, Bishop of Wakefield, and The Venerable Peter Townley, the Archdeacon of Pontefract.

Reynold’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.

Monuments for 23 burials and 50 cremation plaques or inscriptions were found in the church grounds and graveyard but no records of the burials or cremations had been made.

Reynolds, of Upper Church Lane, Farnham, Surrey, went on trial last week accused of keeping fees handed over to him by bereaved families and engaged couples.

He should have handed over the money to the diocese and the parochial church council, the court heard.

Prosecutor Tom Storey told the court that investigations by the church and police showed Reynolds had only passed on a fraction of what he should have between March 2007 and March 2013.

The offences were described as a “significant breach of trust”.

The court heard that suspicions about Reynolds began after he left Darton, in March 2013, to take up a new post in Surrey.

A church warden thought it was “irregular” that a fees cheque from a stonemason relating to a churchyard monument was made out personally to the former vicar.

It was discovered that Reynolds 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.

Monuments for 23 burials and 50 cremation plaques or inscriptions were found in the church grounds and graveyard but no records of the burials or cremations had been made, the court heard.

The church treasurer, Anthony Warden, estimated that £14,600 should have been handed over in respect of weddings and funerals and a further £9,726 should have been paid for burial and cremation plaques or monuments.

Reynolds denied the charges and told police he had not taken the money.

Mr Storey told the court the vicar could not explain where the missing money had gone but said he was very disorganised and had not kept it intentionally.

South Yorkshire Police are asking anyone who may have seen Reynolds to contact 101 quoting incident number 864 of July 23 2015.