A COMMERCIAL diver has pleaded guilty to a £46,000 fraud by falsely stating he had found three cannons in international waters to avoid them being claimed by the Crown.

Vincent Woolsgrove, 48, of Ramsgate, Kent, appeared at Southampton Crown Court following a two-year investigation by the Maritime and Coastguard Agency (MCA).

He had reported finding five cannons in 2007, two from the wreck of the warship London and three in international waters off the coast of Kent.

The warship was built in Chatham dockyard in 1654 and became part of Charles II’s “restoration navy”. In 1665 the London blew up accidentally off Southend.

The three cannons that Woolsgrove said he found off North Foreland were 24lb bronze cannons originally from Amsterdam. They were part of a battery of 36 produced to protect the city in the early 16th century, and were assigned to Dutch ships for the First Anglo-Dutch War.

Woolsgrove was awarded the title of three Dutch cannons, as the MCA was unable to prove at that time that they belonged to the Crown, and he sold them to a collector for more than £50,000.

Further investigation by the MCA, Kent and Essex police and Historic England (formerly part of English Heritage) found the three Dutch cannons had been issued to Dutch vessels to attack the English fleet in 1653, then were taken as prizes by the English. These were subse- quently placed on board the warship London until it blew up with the loss of more than 200 on board.

An MCA spokesman said: “This evidence disproved Mr Woolsgrove’s claim that he had found the cannons outside territorial waters and they were in fact property of the Crown. If he had reported them correctly he would have been entitled to a substantial salvage award.”

Mark Harrison, Historic England’s national policing and crime adviser, said: “This case sets an important precedent in the fight against uncontrolled salvage by a small criminal minority who have no appreciation for England’s maritime heritage.”

Woolsgrove will be sentenced on September 4.