Layton Davies, a metal detectorist already serving time for stealing a valuable Viking treasure hoard, has had his sentence extended by five years after failing to repay £600,000 made from selling the historic find. Originally convicted in 2019 alongside George Powell, Davies was imprisoned for eight and a half years for withholding a treasure trove unearthed in Hertfordshire in 2015, dating back to the reign of King Alfred the Great.
Davies and Powell were required by law to declare the hoard, which included Anglo-Saxon coins and Viking artifacts, but instead sold many items for personal gain. Experts believe the treasure could have provided new insights into the alliances between ancient kingdoms of Mercia and Wessex, reports The Guardian.
Despite being entitled to half the legal proceeds of the treasure’s sale, Davies and the others chose to withhold the discovery from both the landowner and the public. Having failed to repay £600,000, plus interest, Davies, now 56, will now serve an additional five years and three months in prison.
Debbie Price of the Crown Prosecution Service remarked:
“This case shows that the CPS takes our duty to ensure crime doesn’t pay seriously. Davies has failed to pay, so we have taken him back to court, and his additional default sentence means he now faces a further five years in prison.”
When Metal Detecting Becomes a Crime
At Worcester Crown Court in 2019, four men were originally on trial, accused of stealing a treasure worth up to $3.6 million (£3 million). According to the Daily Telegraph, “George Powell, 38, and Layton Davies, 51,” were accused “of failing to declare a hoard of 1,000 year-old buried valuables they unearthed”. They were sentenced to 10 years and 81/2 years respectively in November 2019.
The pair are experienced metal detectorists and they found the valuable hoard in a field near Leominster, Herefordshire in a field that is part of the Eye Court Farm.
Under British law, any archaeological find must be reported “to the local coroner as possible treasure” reported the Daily Mirror at the time. It is then appraised by specialists, and they will determine if it is a national treasure and its value.
Gareth Williams, a curator of early medieval coins at the British Museum, explained why this crime is taken seriously:
“It’s not just a theft of the items. If we don’t recover everything, it’s a theft of our history. 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. They have chosen not to and in doing so have destroyed an important part of our history. It’s difficult to feel any sympathy for them at all; they have been greedy and selfish and the nation is the loser.”
Paul Wells, 60, and Simon Wicks, 57, were also charged with Powell and Davies with “conspiring to conceal the treasure,” reported the Daily Telegraph. Wells and Wicks did not find the treasure, but they helped the metal detectorists hide their find.
Powell, Davis, and Wicks were additionally charged with attempting to illegally sell the treasure. All of the accused denied the charges, but BBC News reported that Powell and Davies were convicted of theft and the concealment of their find. Wicks and Wells were also convicted of concealing the discovery.
Metal Detectorists Hid and Sold the Treasure
In the original inquest, the prosecutor told the court that much of the treasure trove was buried in the ground for over 1,000 years. It had lain undisturbed since before the Norman invasion until the detectorists found it in the summer of 2015. It is alleged that some 300 coins, ingots, and some pieces of jewelry were unearthed, but only 30 coins have been recovered by the police.
This means that many of the historic coins and pieces of jewelry found were (and are) missing and had been sold on the black market. The 30 coins were seized from people who had bought the coins, and from the defendants’ homes. It is alleged that Wicks “hid some within the handle of a magnifying glass” according to the Daily Mail.
The police were able to establish the find because they found photographs on one of the men’s smartphones. In these, the two men are shown digging out a large number of coins and other pieces of treasure.
Photographic evidence of the hoard being retrieved found on the phones of the accused. (YouTube Screenshot)
Furthermore, the pair reportedly bragged to an antique dealer that they had found a great many coins and also ignored his advice to report them to the authorities. However, the thieves denied that there was a larger hoard.
In a further development in May 2023, two other men were caught trying to sell coins believed to be from the same hoard. Craig Best and Roger Pilling were sentenced to more than five years each for trying to illegally sell coins worth around $1million (£766,000).
Medieval Treasure Trove
The part of the find that was originally recovered “consisted of a gold ring, bracelet, and silver ingot from the 9th century, a crystal ball pendant from the 5th century,” reported the Daily Telegraph. The court was also told that many of the coins found in the field came from the reign of Alfred the Great. Others came from the time of King Ceolwulf , who ruled the Kingdom of Wessex.
The treasure hoard included a crystal pendant that dates to around 600 AD. (West Mercia Police)
Williams explained the significance of the coins:
“These coins enable us to re-interpret our history at a key moment in the creation of England as a single kingdom. What the coins show, beyond any possible doubt, is that there was actually an alliance between Alfred and Ceolwulf. And yet a few years later, Ceolwulf is dismissed by historians at Alfred’s court. He’s written out of history, but the coins show a different picture. This is a find of national importance from a key moment in the unification of England. It comes just at the moment when the Vikings were attacking in a large way.”
Of the 30 coins that were recovered by police, some are extremely rare and valuable. They include a penny-sized coin, known as a ‘Cross-and-Lozenge.’ One coin has an image of what looks like two heads and it is known as a ‘two emperors’ – these are much sought after by collectors.
There was also a silver coin from what is now Iran and one showing the Frankish emperor Louis the Pious. The court was told that dealers from all over the world would have been interested in the coins discovered in the field.
A silver coin showing the Frankish emperor Louis the Pious was found by the metal detectorists. (World Imaging / CC BY-SA 3.0)
While the whereabouts of the rest of the treasure remain unknown and the alleged missing pieces may never be located, maybe the thought of another five years behind bars could help persuade Mr Davies to reveal what he knows.