Police yesterday said they had charged a 44-year-old man with theft following the removal of the nine brass burial plaques from St John’s Cemetery, between October 28 and November 22 last year.
Four of them were taken from the graves of returned service personnel who served in World Wars 1 and 2.
Senior Constable Craig Colyer said all nine plaques were recovered but some were "damaged beyond repair".
"Theft at any time is appalling, but targeting a cemetery is a particularly low act.
"We hope this arrest brings some comfort to the affected families."
Royal New Zealand Returned and Services’ Association (RSA) Awarua president Ian Beker said he was relieved an arrest had been made.
If found guilty, the man "should be made to go down to the Eastern Cemetery and clean and scrub every bloody headstone there — it’s got a lot more", he said.
"Hundred hours worth of community service down there cleaning up graves and headstones, I think, would be a very fitting punishment.
"I’d be happy to go and supervise him doing it too."
He congratulated the authorities on their "good, prompt police work".
Stealing plaques was "despicable" and akin to stealing people’s identities, he said.
"They’d actually grabbed a hot potato in their hands because no reputable scrap metal dealer would have taken them.
"I don’t know what they could have used them for. I suspect it was purely to make some money."
At least one of the plaques had been repaired and returned to its grave.
That plaque — commemorating military nurse Major Rose Hinchey — was "quite mangled" upon recovery, but after being tended to by the team at J. Fraser & Sons, was now looking "like mint", Mr Beker said.
Operations manager Hamish MacPherson said the plaques the funeral home had been presented with were "quite deformed".
"Normally they’re quite flat, almost like a piece of paper with the embossed lettering in them.
"They’re the worst I’ve ever seen without them being broken in half, frankly."
The plaques were severely damaged and looked as if they had been "prised off with some heavy crowbar", Mr MacPherson said.
They would be carefully bent back into shape, without damaging them further, and sandblasted, painted and polished where possible.
Once repaired, they would have a 90% resemblance to their previous state — if not better.
The plaques were critical for families of war veterans to find their loved ones and see the physical acknowledgement of their sacrifice, he said.
"We should maintain these as much as we possibly can — it’s our obligation really."
The 44-year-old accused is scheduled to appear in the Invercargill District Court on Tuesday.
