Thief owns up to £26k church document haul

Published on Tuesday 15 April 2008 13:46

A THIEF posed as a student to steal centuries-old documents about the origins of the Catholic church in Scotland.

Oliver Fallon, 40, was allowed access to documents at the Scottish Catholic Archives in Edinburgh after telling staff he was a post-graduate student.

He ripped out pages and stole 288 items worth 26,400.

Edinburgh Sheriff Court today heard Fallon, from London, made five visits to the centre in Drummond Place.

The SCA looks after administrative, financial and legal documents of the church and many items are letters sent to churchmen from overseas and are valuable primary sources from the early days of the British Empire and the colonisation of America.

Archivists only realised he had stolen from them when Fallon was arrested for a similar crime in London and told police he had done the same in Edinburgh.

They discovered 288 files were either missing or damaged.

Fallon pled guilty at to stealing historical documents. He is due to be sentenced next month following background reports. Sheriff Noel McPartlin warned Fallon he could face a custodial sentence.