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A Sekondi District Magistrate's Court on Monday sentenced Mark Coffie, a 23-year old unemployed, to 18 months imprisonment in hard labour for stealing building materials belonging to the Sekondi Methodist Church. The accused who lived at Sekondi pleaded guilty to stealing. Prosecuting, Police Sergeant Godwin Bawa, said the Sekondi Methodist Church was constructing a new building near the Church, and the contractor used some of the roofing sheets for the project to construct a temporal structure on the site to store the building materials. He said about 6.00 a.m. on September 3 this year, a 'good Samaritan' saw the accused standing at the junction of the Church with 85 pieces of iron rods rings, 25 iron rods, eight louvre frames, two metal pipes and one bar. Sergeant Bawa said the accused was waiting for a taxi to convey the items and the 'good Samaritan' became suspicious and confronted the accused who did not utter a word. He said later, the accused told the 'good Samaritan' the items belonged to him, but not satisfied the 'good Samaritan' called in somebody from the construction site who identified the items as belonging to the Church. The accused person was taken to the construction site where it was detected that part of the temporal structure had been cut off, Sergeant Bawa said. He said the accused then confessed having entered the structure and stolen the items and he was handed over to the Police who charged him after further investigations.