The judge told them their offending was aggravated by their plan to sell the coins abroad, saying: 'Had they left this country, they would have been likely to be lost to this nation for ever.'

The coin enthusiasts were convicted of conspiracy to convert criminal property and a separate charge of possession of criminal property and were jailed for five years and two months. Two of the coins found in the hoard have never been recovered and were 'hidden away,' the judge said. Read more: 'You feel gaslit': Nearly 180 sexual and domestic abuse claims against Police Scotland officers yet to be addressed Read more: Man charged with murder of woman, 31, stabbed to death in Brixton - after three knife attacks days earlier He was confident, having heard evidence during a trial last month, that the coins were part of a larger, undeclared find known as the Herefordshire or Leominster Hoard. Judge James Adkin, sitting at Durham Crown Court, said a further two coins remained outstanding and had been 'hidden away'. By Asher metal detectorists who hatched an illegal plot to sell abroad Anglo-Saxon coins of great historical significance have been jailed for more than five years.Ĭraig Best, 46, and Roger Pilling, 75, were convicted of conspiring to sell criminal property worth £766,000, namely 44 ninth century coins believed to have been buried by a Viking and which have never been declared as Treasure, and have not been handed to the Crown.

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