A CHURCH that had more than £1,000 worth of heating fuel stolen is one of the victims of a nationwide rise in similar thefts.

St Michael's church, Theydon Mount, has had £1,200 worth of fuel drained from the tank inside the church in the past three months, most recently in December.

Church vicar, the Rev Andrei Petrine, said: “We ordered more fuel, but it was just stolen again.

“There's not much we can do. If you secure the tank, they will break it and do more damage.

“Last month, about 200 litres of fuel was stolen, but the previous one was 1,000 litres.”

He said the church was buying small amounts of the fuel, which costs about £1 a litre, to try and reduce the funds lost if it is targeted again.

With the cost of fuel rising by 70 per cent in the past few months, thefts of heating fuel from gardens in rural areas has also risen.

Farmer Simon Collins, of Kingston Farm in Matching Green, has stepped up security after thieves attempted to steal diesel from a tank in one of his barns just before Christmas.

“They'd found a length of scaffolding pipe and used it as a lever, but the strength of the tank prevented them from gaining access,” he said. “We had fuel stolen from one of our tanks three years ago.

“It's made us step up security. We have extra lighting now, especially around our fuel tanks, and web-based CCTV.”

The co-ordinator for Essex Police's farm watch scheme, Colin Freeman, said: “It's an on-going problem and it's likely to get worse as the economic situation gets worse.

“Everyone needs to be vigilant. People can make their property safer by having good locks and good lighting.”

Thieves across the country are employing more sophisticated tactics when stealing fuel, including following tankers and siphoning off their contents.