Melt Down in Corpus Case

Almost all of the Silver stolen from the Corpus chapel earlier this month has been melted down, a Cambridge Court was told on Friday. 

Of the £11,596 of silver stolen police were only able to recover £956 worth, the Ciborium, the Everyday Paten, and the Sunday (Knight) Paten, as reported in The Tab last week.

However, in the trial of the man charged with taking the precious items it was revealed that the remaining £10,640 is believed to have been melted down.

The news will come as a huge blow to the college, who described the items as “irreplaceable”.

The accused man, 37 year old Scott Thomas, appeared by video link from Peterborough prison where he is being remanded in custody, to plead guilty to multiple counts of theft.

Magistrates told Scott Thomas that, considering the ‘high value’ of the items, he needed ‘to be dealt with by the crown court’ rather than in the magistrates court where the maximum sentence would have been 12 months in prison.

Thomas was also charged with the theft of thousands of pounds worth of bicycles from around Cambridge, including those taken from Clare College, Sidgwick Site and St Edmunds. Thomas admitted stealing Professor Simon Keynes’ £450 bike in August 2011.

He was caught earlier this month when a local antiques dealer alerted police after being offered the goods by Thomas, who claimed to have found the distinctive silverware whilst ‘clearing out some items’. Thomas was asking for £100 for the goods, but accepted £30.