A vicar who deceived grieving parishioners by overcharging for funerals was jailed for nine months yesterday after admitting 11 counts of false accounting amounting to around #30,000.

The Rev Roy Hibbert, 68, even charged distraught parents to bury stillborn babies when the service should have been provided by the church free of charge, Wolverhampton Crown Court was told.

Sentencing Hibbert, of Newport, Shropshire, Judge Frank Chapman told him: ''You would not dream of stealing from someone's purse or home or car, but the result of your actions is just the same.''