Treasure hunters ordered to pay £1,200,000 after failing to declare find
Two ‘greedy’ metal detectorists who stole a £3 million hoard of Anglo-Saxon buried treasure have been ordered to repay £1.2 million between them ‘immediately’.
George Powell, 41, and Layton Davies, 54, were jailed for more than 11 years after failing to report their find.
They handed over just three ‘valueless’ coins – out of a 1,100 year-old collection from the reign of King Alfred – that ‘rewrote history’.
Both stumbled upon the collection of coins, jewellery and silver ingots in the spring of 2015.
The treasures had been buried at Eye Court Farm, near Leominster in Herefordshire.
Powell and Davies then ‘clumsily’ dug up the hoard – but failed to disclose the extent of their discovery. Doing so is a requirement under the Treasure Act 1996.
The pair were found guilty of theft, conspiracy to conceal criminal property and conspiracy to convert criminal property in November 2019.
They have now been told they must pay back over £600k each – according to a confiscation Order was made last Wednesday at Worcester Crown Court.
They have until March 21 to cough up the cash.
If they fail to pay the bill on time, they can expect an additional five years and four months of jail time on top of their existing 18 year sentence.
Powell, a warehouse worker from Newport, South Wales, was jailed for six-and-a-half years.
Davies, a school caretaker from Pontypridd, was jailed for five years.
The convictions followed a lengthy investigation by West Mercia Police into reports from the metal detecting community and the British Museum of an unreported large treasure find in 2015.
Both men had sold several of their pilfered items on the black market, raising enormous sums of money in what Judge Nicholas Cartwright described as a ‘greedy and selfish’ act.
Only 31 of the coins – worth between £10,000 and £50,000 – and pieces of jewellery have ever been recovered, with the majority of the hoard still missing.
Superintendent Edd Williams, local policing commander for Herefordshire, said: ‘I’m delighted with today’s result, which brings closure to an investigation which we have been working on for seven years.
‘The Confiscation Order, coupled with the sentences Powell and Davies received, send a strong and clear message that we take this sort of crime very seriously and will take action.
‘It is a criminal offence to not declare finds of treasure to the local coroner’s office.
‘I’d also like to take this opportunity to thank our partners, including Herefordshire County Council’s conservation and environment team and The British Museum, for their support in bringing this case to a successful conclusion.’
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