Woman who stole £60,000 from church given suspended sentence

Lyndsey Bredin, of Primity Crescent, Newbuildings, pleaded guilty to 19 charges of theft by an employee between March 2010 and October 2011.

Derry Crown Court heard that the 27-year-old was honorary treasurer for Culmore and Muff Parish Church when she stole the money.

It was revealed the money taken included donations made for a new roof for the Muff Church which parishioners made in memory of people that had died.

Bredin destroyed all records relating to these donations and messages which had been sent with them.

The thefts had a ‘significant impact’ on the church and caused ‘stress and hardship to the families that worship there’.

Suspending an 18 month jail term for three years, Judge Philip Babington said it was a ‘very serious breach of trust’.

However, he was with ‘hesitation’ giving Bredin the ‘benefit of the doubt’.