A Croydon church congregation are taking their handbags and valuables up to the altar in a bid to outwit opportunistic thieves.

Parishioners at Croydon Minster have been urged to keep valuables on them during communion, to avoid becoming victims of the thieves, which has been hit by over an 18-month period.

The parish church was targeted by lead thieves in 2010, but over the last 18 months has been hit inside as well.

Denise Mead, verger at Croydon Minster, said: "You hope people would be more morally aware in a church, but we can’t police who comes in.

"The congregation are encouraged to take their handbags up to communion, this is because opportunists take advantage of the movement."

She added thieves might target the Minster because they believed the churchgoers were trusting, more middle-class and had more money.

Ms Mead said: "Two years ago we lost a lot of our roof, so we have had CCTV for a year and a half.

"There are two or three ways for people to get out of the building and unless there are four people chasing them, it is impossible to predict where they will go."

Maureen Hickling, who tends the flowers at the Minster, saw a thief steal a woman’s handbag from a pew in late February and had her own bag stolen while she was watering flowers last year.

She said: "It’s a real shock to the congregation, especially as people get older. I just put my handbag down on the choir stalls and was cleaning when it happened. I lost £20 - it’s not just the money, but the emotional upset too."

A spokesman from the UK’s leading Anglican church insurer Ecclesiastical Insurance, said there had been three claims for thefts inside churches from the Southwark Diocese in January and February 2012 alone.

Steve Harris of the Diocese of Southwark, said: "I am simply not surprised, especially in a church as big as the Minster. There is a lot of space in there for people to go unnoticed."