DETECTORISTS GUILTY OF STEALING £3m HOARD
PAIR FAILED TO DECLARE ‘INVALUABLE’ ANGLO SAXON HOARD OF COINS AND JEWELS FOUND ON FARMLAND
TWO metal detectorists have been convicted of stealing a £3million Viking hoard of coins and priceless jewellery – much of which is still missing.
George Powell, 38, and Layton Davies, 51, failed to declare an ‘invaluable’ haul of buried treasure dating back 1,100 years to King Alfred the Great.
The items, many of which were Anglo Saxon but are typical of a Viking burial hoard, were dug up on Herefordshire farmland in June 2015.
Among the treasure was a ninth century gold ring, a dragon’s head bracelet, a silver ingot, a crystal rock pendant dating to the 5th century and up to 300 coins, some from King Alfred’s reign.
Only 31 of the coins have been recovered, although mobile phone photos – later deleted, but recovered by police – showed the larger hoard, still intact, in a freshly dug hole.
Powell and Davies were convicted alongside two other men – Paul Wells, 60, and Simon Wicks, 57 – of conspiring to conceal the find. Davies claimed the pair dug the jewellery out of two holes but the photos deleted from his phone showed the trove as one.
He also alleged Powell planted some coins, which he already owned, in the hole for ‘staged’ photographs, to give the items greater provenance and value.
One image appeared to show many more silver ingots than were recovered by police but the men claimed these were simply bullet casings. The pair claimed talk of a 300-coin hoard was a rumour, insisting they declared all they found to the National Museum Wales.
They were undone by the photos on Davies’s phone and the recovery of coins, including five hidden in a magnifying glass case and volunteered to police by Wells. Wicks, Powell and
Davies were also found guilty of converting their ill-gotten gains into cash, after police traced several coins sold on to private collectors, hidden away or left with expert valuers.
All four were convicted at Worcester crown court of ignoring a law that such finds must be properly declared in a bid to sell the items in small batches. Five coins are the exceptionally rare
Two Emperors penny, valued at up to £50,000 apiece, that depicts King Alfred and Mercia ruler Ceolwulf II together.
An analysis of the hoard recovered to date and now held at the British Museum gave a value of at least £581,000.
Specialist Gareth Williams told The Guardian: ‘The stupidity is that our treasure system is the most generous in the world in terms of providing rewards for those who abide by the law. These men would be rich by now if they had done things by the book.’
Powell, of Newport; Davies, of Pontypridd; Wells, of Cardiff, and Wicks, of Hailsham, East Sussex, will be sentenced at a later date.