A BURGLAR who stole a priest’s car after breaking into a church has been jailed.

David Holt was locked up for 16 months at Liverpool Crown Court on Tuesday, October 5, over the break-in at St Benedict’s Church in Orford.

The 45-year-old took the keys to the vehicle, which was valued at £9,800, from inside the Rhodes Street building before driving away in the Honda Jazz during an incident in October last year.

Holt, of no fixed address but formerly of O’Leary Street in Orford, will serve his latest prison sentence consecutively to his current jail term.

He is currently being held in HMP Altcourse after he was caged for four years in June at the same court, having admitted robbery.

This related to another incident in October 2020, during which Holt brandished a knife towards staff at Cash Generator on Bridge Street in the town centre while demanding cash from the safe and till.

The robbery was committed only 11 days after the burglary at the church.

Flatmate and accomplice Simon Baker, 51, meanwhile kept watch at the entrance to the store.

Warrington Guardian:

They fled with £500 and an iPhone after the raid, which they carried out in order to get money to buy drugs.

Baker was found guilty of robbery after a trial and jailed for seven years.