A MUSICIAN who pretended to be a church minister in a bid to steal a £60,000 organ is facing jail.

Paul Carroll, 34, ordered the valuable musical instrument to sent to St Andrew's Episcopal Church in Uddingston, Lanarkshire, after pretending he was the Reverend Ian Black, a bogus name he invented.

He secretly watched the organ being delivered after leaving the church doors opened. He then spent two hours practising his keyboard skills in the empty hall.

But Carroll, a devout catholic and married father-of-two, panicked and fled when the 350 kilo organ toppled over as he tried to steal it in September last year.

Carroll of Bridge of Weir, Renfrewshire, returned to the church the next day and convinced an unsuspecting friend to help him remove it to a warehouse.

But the friend later contacted police after discovering they were hunting the stolen property.

Hamilton Sheriff Court heard how Carroll had contacted Allen Organs in London, a firm who hired organs.

Depute fiscal Louise Beattie said: "In July last year Elizabeth Arkwright received an email from Ian Black, reportedly the minister of St Andrew's Church in regards to hiring a church organ.

"A number of emails were exchanged and Mrs Arkwright called the mobile number provided by the accused and he claimed to be Ian Black.

"They agreed for the organ to be hired for two days on the 24th and 25th of September for £1500 pounds."

The court then heard how Carroll had raised suspicions after contacting the firm a second time to ask for an extension of the hire time for a concert recital.

Depute fiscal Beattie added: "At this point the company was becoming suspicious and one employee checked the internet for any concerts being held in the Uddingston area.

"On discovering there was no concert, drivers returned to collect the organ.

"On that same day the accused had arrived at a friend's work in a van and told him that he had repossessed the organ after the church had failed to make payments.

"At 7.30pm that night the delivery drivers arrived at the church and realised the organ was missing.

"The police were contacted and an investigation commenced.

"Following police appeals, Mr Carroll's friend contacted police and told them he had assisted Carroll in removing the organ.

"Carroll handed himself into Hamilton police office and made a full admission.

"He told officers had not stolen the organ to sell but that if he had liked it he would keep it for himself."

Paul Arkwright of Allen Organs revealed his company have been left thousands of pounds out of pocket.

He said; "It was a big shock to us as we were dealing with a church and you wouldn't expect that sort of thing to happen.

"We had to drop it off at the church and then we had to go back up to collect it along with the damage that was done to the organ it has cost us around £4000.

"It has certainly made us even more careful now and we have put in procedures to try and make sure this can never happen again."

Sheriff Vincent Smith deferred sentence on Carroll and called for background reports.

He added: "This was a very serious matter."