£3m of Viking treasure concealed by metal detectorists

George Powell, 38 and Layton Davies, 51 pretended it was just a rumour that they had discovered £3m in Viking treasure. Both failed to tell the UK authorities they had found jewellery and coins dating back years to the reign of King Alfred the Great some 1,100 years ago.

 

The pair were digging on Herefordshire farmland which did not belong to them on June 2 2015, when they came across the historic items. They realised that other collectors around the world would be envious so planned to sell them off, bit by bit, for millions on the black market, insisting that only the coins they found were declared to the National Museum Wales in Cardiff.

 

Their plan was foiled when photographs of the haul, on Davies' phone, were discovered by police.

According to Law all treasure found in the United Kingdom belongs to the Crown and a Treasure Valuation Committee decides how it should be shared between the finder and the landowner or tenant.    

 

During their seven week trial Worcester Crown Court heard that Powell had only handed three coins to the landowner, and that they were "not particularly valuable".

 

Included in the treasure, much dating back to Anglo Saxon times, was a silver ingot, a dragon's head bracelet, a ninth-century gold ring and a crystal rock pendant dating to the fifth century and upto 300 coins. Five of the coins are examples of the rare Two Emperors penny which are valued at up to £50,000 each.

 

Now held at the British Museum the jewellery and coinage, recovered to date, has a valuation of at least £581,000, according to expert analysis.

 

Several coins were traced by police to either private collectors, hidden away, or left with expert valuers. Prosecutor Kevin Hegarty QC said: "Over 1,100 years ago, before the Norman Conquest, jewellery, coins and ingots were concealed in the ground near Eye Court Farm near Leominster, Herefordshire".

 

The horde lay undisturbed for many hundreds of years until June 2015P when Powell and Davies were out with their metal detectors on farmland at Eye Court Farm. They were both experienced and therefore knew that this find was extraordinary. Hegarty went on to say "They decided to treat the find as theirs and not to declare it to the landowner, the tenant farmer and the coroner. In short, they stole it".

 

Powell and Davies were found guilty of theft and conspiring to conceal the treasure, while their two accomplices, Paul Wells, 60, Simon Wicks, 57, were convicted of conspiring to conceal the treasure.

 

Wicks, Powell and Davies were also found guilty of converting their ill-gotten gains into cash. All four men will be sentenced on Friday.

 

Collings Solicitors

Altrincham