A collection jar holding some €1,000 in coins has been stolen from the congregation of the Holy Trinity Church in Sliema, which it had been planning to donate to charity. 

For three years, the congregation had been collecting foreign coins in the large jar kept at the back of the church. The plan was to make a donation to a local charity at Christmas.

The heavy jar and the coins it contained have now disappeared. 

Ursula Smith, church warden, said: “This is heart breaking, with so many people putting in for so long, and now it has been wasted. Not only will it not go to charity, also as the contents have no value in Malta and when the thief discovers this they will just be dumped. We will start again but it will be hard.”

Fr Clem Upton added: “It's important to keep the church open, many people seek solace within its holy walls. It's sad when this privilege is abused.”

"The thieves may not have known the jar contained foreign coins and dumped it far away when they realised the coins were useless to them."

Anyone who finds a large glass jar filled with coins is asked to hand it over to Sliema police station.