UK detectorists pay heavy price for theft

Two metal detectorists who unearthed a hoard of gold jewellery, silver ingots and coins buried more than 1,000 years ago by a Viking warrior in Herefordshire received lengthy jail sentences for theft in late 2019. George Powell, 38, and Layton Davies, 51, should have legally declared the find, worth millions. They elected to sell it off. They received 10 years and eight and a half years respectively. The judge said they had cheated not only the landowner, but also the public of “exceptionally rare and significant” coins. “You cheated the farmer, his mother, the landowner and also the public when you committed theft of these items,” he said. “That is because the treasure belongs to the nation. The benefit to the nation is these items can be seen and admired by others."

Jewellery dated from the fifth to ninth centuries. All the jewellery and one ingot was recovered but the majority of the 300 Anglo-Saxon coins are gone forever. One lost coin was “Two Emperors”, believed to depict King Alfred the Great of Wessex and Ceolwulf II of Mercia, revealing a previously unknown pact between the pair. After rumours began to circulate about the find, the gold and one ingot was handed over, but police have recovered only 30 of the 300 coins.