Thief stole Northampton pub’s collection for funeral donation as community rallies to raise even more

A Northampton pub landlord has been left “disgusted” after a thief stole money that had been donated by customers to buy flowers for a funeral.

Daniel Chilvers runs The Bear in Sheep Street with his wife, Jade. The couple started a collection to send flowers and a charitable donation to the funeral of a former “well-known” and “well-respected” landlady - Molly Fowley, who ran pubs around Northampton.

Customers had been generous and the collection had reached £255, as counted on June 21. The day after, the money was stolen.

Daniel says the offender was in the pub at around 10.20 am on June 22 when he waited for the member of bar staff to go to the toilet. He then crawled behind the bar, put the collection tin down his trousers and walked out of the pub.

A Northamptonshire Police spokeswoman said the force made an arrest on June 30. The offender was charged with burglary other than dwelling and appeared at Northampton Magistrates Court the following day, where he was sentenced.

Dan said: “He’d been warned off the bar once by a customer but then he crawled behind there and took the money.

“I don’t think he knew what it was for, but coming behind the bar is bad enough. My staff could have been attacked. It makes you wonder.”

Dan and Jade decided to, personally, pay for flowers to be sent to the funeral after the original money was stolen.

The landlord says he was reluctant to tell the customers what happened, but once they did “they came out in force” to start raffles and other fundraising activities to raise more money.

One of the fundraisers was a bonus ball, whereby customers pay to pick a number and the winner is determined by the National Lottery bonus ball number.

A customer paid for ball number one as that was the number Molly always had. He asked for it to be noted down in Molly’s name so if it won all the money could go to the collection. By a stroke of luck - or fate - Saturday’s bonus ball was number one.

With these and the start of raffle sales, more than £300 has already been raised - and as the flowers have been paid for - this money and any more raised will go to Marie Curie, as chosen by Molly’s family.

Dan hopes with all the fundraising activities planned, that he and his customers will raise £1,000 by the end of July.

He added: “The money will all go to Marie Curie, because at the end of the day, that is who he stole from.

“We are aiming for £1,000 as that is four times what was stolen and a nice, round number.

“We’ve managed to put a positive spin on a negative.”

Dan was also keen to thank Northamptonshire Police. He says the officer involved went “above and beyond” to catch the thief.