A burglar who raided safes and charity boxes in more than 500 churches across Wales and England has been sent to prison for four years.

Christopher Coulthard, 40, checked out the churches dressed as a tourist and carried his tools in a camera bag, Swansea Crown Court heard.

The court heard that for nine months he averaged two church break-ins a day, but was so stealthy and careful, that most of them went undetected.

Swansea Crown Court heard hundreds of churches were targeted

Coulthard was carrying �2,450 in cash when he was eventually caught and he then made a full and frank confession and later advised police on church security.

District Judge Vivian Manning-Davies told Coulthard his offences were "disgusting and outrageous", saying they were the worst he had ever seen.

Coulthard, from Bedworth, Warwickshire, appeared at Swansea Crown Court for sentencing on Friday on charges involving churches and chapels in Pembrokeshire, Ceredigion and Carmarthenshire.

The burglar was finally caught in Aberystwyth, west Wales, in September after a local cleric reported him to police after growing suspicious.

Detectives traced his car and tracked him down to a hotel in the town where they discovered maps showing his meticulously planned break-ins.

Camera case

Judge Manning-Davies heard how the vast majority of Coulthard's crimes were committed in the nine months to last September.

Coulthard admitted 15 cases of burglary and one of attempted burglary and asked for 502 others to be taken into account.

James Jenkins, defending, said: "If you want to see it in religious terms he has made a good confession."

Catherine Richards, prosecuting, said Coulthard had targeted churches in North Yorkshire, Midlands, Gloucester, Herefordshire, East Anglia, Devon, Cornwall and all over Wales.

He travelled from town to town staying in small hotels and visiting churches marked on Ordinance Survey maps to size them in advance.

He broke into churches at a rate of up to two per day, taking money from collection and charity boxes and occasionally breaking into church safes, the court heard.

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"He kept his tools in a camera case so that they did not stand out when he visited churches," Miss Richards said.

"But he would not target churches in towns for fear of being recorded on CCTV.

"Some he had to break in to by breaking locks, picking locks or climbing through windows.

"Once inside he would steal any money he could find."

Church artefacts

The judge acknowledged that Coulthard had never stolen church artefacts and had freely admitted hundreds of similar break-ins which would otherwise have been undetected.

After the hearing Pc Owain Richards, of Dyfed-Powys Police told of his rising horror as the scale of Coulthard's crimes came to light.

"It was really shocking. The numbers involved and the geographical area inside Dyfed-Powys alone was immense," he said.

"He admitted to more than 100 separate break-ins in the Dyfed-Powys force area."