A metal detectorist jailed after he stole Viking treasure worth over £5 million claims he gambled the whole fortune away.

Warehouseman George Powell, 40, failed to declare a cache of rare coins and jewellery that had been buried for over 1,100 years.

He was jailed for six years following the incident.

A court previously heard there may have been up to 300 coins included in the find, which took place at a farm near Leominster, Herefordshire, in 2015, although only 31 pieces were recovered.

The total value of the haul was predicted to be £5,285,250.

Giving evidence at a new hearing last week, Powell claimed to have found only 51 coins, and sold the unrecovered 20 for just £10,000 according to the Mirror.

He admitted to gambling it all away after telling the court he ‘had a bit of a naughty habit’.

Powell, from Newport, South Wales, said he sold 20 coins to crooked antiques dealer Simon Wicks at a service station on the M4 and kept the remaining 31 to himself.

Wicks was previously jailed for five years for concealment, along with fellow treasure hunter Layton Davies, who claimed to know nothing about the stolen coins.

Powell, who was jailed for six and a half years, said in the new hearing: ‘We are metal detectorists, you want to become rich to get the payout, it’s a treasure hunting hobby.’

When asked why he had changed his mind and decided to give evidence for the first time, Powell added he had ‘nothing to lose’.

He added: ‘Your honour and the public deserve the right to know the truth. I think prison has made the best of me. It’s made me realise what I’ve done wrong. It needs to be told.

‘People can change their mind can’t they? A lot can happen over a cup of tea can’t it?’

Davies, a school technician and grandfather from Pontypridd, had reportedly previously told Powell to report the finding but was ignored.

A veteran treasure hunter with more than 100 declared findings under his belt, Davis clamed to know nothing about the coins or their concealment and was simply ‘in the wrong place at the wrong time.’

When asked if he felt guilty about landing his friend in jail, Powell said: ‘I do feel partially, but it’s his choice, he’s a grown man. If he didn’t want to be there, he didn’t have to be there.’

He added that he didn’t declare the find because the farmer he had sought permission to search from had said Baron Cawley, a peer in the House of Lords, was the owner of the land. 

Powell said: ‘We thought there would be no gain from what there was. We were thinking about the money.’

When asked by the judge if he knew that declaring his findings would have entailed a payday of hundreds of thousands of pounds, he said: ‘That’s what I have to live with every day.’

Under the UK Treasure Act 1996, anyone who finds buried treasure is entitled to a share of the rewards if they ‘had permission to be on the land and acted in good faith’.

Asked by Judge Nicholas Cartwright why he didn’t declare it, Powell said: ‘I got a bit greedy at that time Your Honour. I can’t dwell on the past, there are lots of ifs and buts.’

Elsewhere in the treasure hoard was a 9th Century chunky gold ring, a dragon’s head arm bracelet, at least one silver ingot and a small crystal rock pendant held in thin strips of gold dating to the 5th or 6th century.

There was also an extremely rare ‘two emperors’ coin in the find depicting both King Alfred of Wessex and Ceolwulf II of Mercia.

The coins are historically significant because they reveal how the two separate kingdoms eventually came together in the early stages of the formation of England.

The items are now on display at Hereford Museum Resource and Learning Centre after they were purchased for £776,250.

Powell, Davies and Wicks are set to face a further ruling from the judge next month which could see them face additional jail time.

Get in touch with our news team by emailing us at [email protected].

For more stories like this, check our news page.

Source: Read Full Article