Roger Pilling, 77, was convicted with a second man of conspiring to promote 44 ninth-century cash present in a location between Leominster and Ludlow and price £766,000, and was jailed for 5 years and two months at Durham Crown Court docket in Might 2023.
Pilling, from Loveclough, Lancashire, has three months to repay the cash or he might face one other 12-month jail sentence.
The cash, which have been by no means declared as treasure, have been believed to have been buried by a Viking and included two extraordinarily uncommon examples of two-headed cash, exhibiting Alfred of Wessex and Ceolwulf II of Mercia.
Pilling and his co-defendant Craig Finest, 48, beforehand of Bishop Auckland, County Durham, tried to promote the cash to an actual American collector, who contacted UK specialists about how such uncommon items have been obtainable on the market, and police have been known as in.
Forty-four cash have been recovered within the following sting operation however two – that Pilling claimed he had damaged – have been by no means discovered.
On April 24, Pilling was ordered to repay £103,000 after a confiscation order was granted at Teeside Crown Court docket.
He has three months to make the cost or he might face one other 12-month jail sentence.
Adrian Foster, Chief Crown Prosecutor for the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division, mentioned: “Roger Pilling meant to promote these uncommon and necessary cash for his personal achieve.
“He knew that these cash have been stolen treasure and as an alternative of selecting to report against the law, he selected to attempt to revenue from it.
“The CPS labored with the police to worth his prison profit from the tried promoting of those uncommon Anglo-Saxon cash, which ought to have been given to the Crown.
“The Confiscation Order set by the Decide displays all of the belongings obtainable to the defendants.
“We’ll at all times work to make sure that crime doesn’t pay, and criminals can not profit from their ill-gotten good points.”
The cash have been estimated to have been made between 874 CE and 879 CE.
The sentencing decide discovered that the 44 cash have been half of a bigger, undeclared discover often known as the Herefordshire or Leominster Hoard, which was found in 2015 and is price thousands and thousands of kilos, however which was additionally not declared.
