A church in Tooting, South London, which lost almost £140,000 through a Covid scam has been paid all the money back by its bank.

Criminals posed as bank employees and managed to scam two members of the Parochial Church Council (PCC) at All Saints Church out of £138,000.

After an investigation was carried out by the bank, it has now been given all the money back.

Rev Mae Christie from the church told Premier it's been a tough week.

"Prayer works," she said. "I really am grateful that the bank have done the right thing.

"I am so grateful for the people in my church who have worked so hard for it.

"We didn't have any indication that this was going to happen and it is a huge weight off of our shoulders."

Speaking previously about the incident, Rev Christie said: "The scammers were very believable, they sounded very professional and one of our church officers thought she was doing the right thing to protect the church accounts.

"They took control of their computers and I know that in hindsight, it sounds like a really bad idea.

"But when presented with people claiming to be the bank hoping to protect their private bank accounts and also the church bank accounts, the church officers were just trying to protect the church.

Rev Christie went onto say that important repairs are needed to the church, she said: "The reserves were there for us to do our roof project, which will cost us well over £120,000 to do. 

"It's not even a total reroofing, but for a church building - that is this the height of my building - the scaffolding alone is an eye watering cost."

Rev Christie said she wants people to pray for the perpetrators that they would turn from their ungodly ways: "Please do pray for the people that did the scam, I fundamentally believe that they're missing something in their lives. 

"I don't know them personally, but they are missing something to behave in this way, something which will not be filled by money."