Police officers spent hours painstakingly reconstructing hundreds of memorial plaques stolen from cemeteries to convict a crooked scrap metal dealer.

Joseph Collier, aged 72, was jailed for fifteen months today for possessing and attempting to receive stolen goods.

They also discovered a bronze dragon stolen from Teddington and a statue of Christ taken from Putney Vale cemetery. Police raided Collier's DSM Scrap Metal Yard in May 2012 after a tip-off from Trading Standards officers.

CCTV footage from the yard showed Collier overseeing the destruction of the plaques using metal-cutting machines.

Cutting machine Credit: Metropolitan Police

I can only describe Collier's attitude throughout this whole process as brazen. He tried to deny any knowledge of receiving stolen items, but some of the memorial plaques even had the mud and wall plugs attached where they'd been prized from the graves. There was little doubt that he knew they were stolen and he had absolutely no regard for the law. His actions, in accepting stolen metal, have fuelled other criminal activity by thieves stealing metal to make a quick profit by selling it to unscrupulous scrap dealers like Collier. Sergeant George Shannon, Met Police

Dragon Credit: Metropolitan Police