Man jailed for selling memorials

A man has been jailed for a year selling more than 100 bronze memorial plaques stolen from a crematorium. Paul Herrick, of Stalybridge, Greater Manchester, sold the plaques from Dukinfield Crematorium for scrap metal for £77. They were worth about £30,000. Manchester Minshull Street Crown Court heard that 430 plaques were taken, but only 170 have been traced. There was no evidence that Herrick, 41, stole the plaques but he pleaded guilty to handling stolen goods. Judge Mushtaq Khokar said Herrick's offence was "mean and nasty". Andrea Lock, prosecuting, said the scam was uncovered in August when a woman noticed the plaque in memoriam to her late husband was missing from a crematorium wall. A tip-off that the plaques had resurfaced at a scrapyard in Ashton-under-Lyne was confirmed when CCTV footage showed Herrick passing the goods over. The scrapyard staff accepted them but were suspicious and put them to one side. He said that they were from a wall which was being demolished and he had been told he could take them. Miss Lock said the theft left many "devastated on an emotional level" http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/england/manchester/7141221.stm