Pair jailed over illegal plot to sell Anglo-Saxon coins from the Herefordshire hoard
A man from Bishop Auckland, and another man from Lancashire, have been sentenced for trying to sell the coins worth £766,000.
Last updated 4th May 2023
Two men have been jailed for trying to sell coins worth £766,000 and believed to be part of the Herefordshire Hoard.
The men, Craig Best from Bishop Auckland and Roger Pilling from Lancashire, have been sentenced after being found guilty of hatching and illegal plot to sell the Anglo-Saxon coins, worth thousands of pounds.
Best, 46, and Pilling, 75, were convicted of conspiring to sell criminal property worth £766,000 - namely 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.
A judge has now sentenced the pair to five years and two months in prison each, with the coins believed to be part of the hoard found near Leominster in 2015.
Neither Pilling nor Best are believed to have found the coins themselves, instead the coins are thought to have been discovered in the hoard found by two detectorists.
After the trial last week, Judge James Adkin told the pair: "You have both been convicted of what I consider to be compelling evidence of serious criminality, in relation to these artefacts.
"You are both aware of what the sentence is likely to be, imprisonment for years."
Best, of South View, Bishop Auckland, was arrested with three coins at a Durham hotel in May 2019 in a police sting operation.
Best thought he was meeting a metals expert, employed by a broker working for a wealthy US-based buyer, but was, in fact, speaking to an undercover detective.
Pilling, who owned an engineering business, was arrested at his home in Loveclough, Lancashire, and a further 41 coins were seized.
These 44 coins originated from the Herefordshire Hoard, discovered in 2015, worth millions of pounds, and which was also not declared.
Four people have already been convicted for their roles in concealing that find.
The undercover police operation was set up after Best tried to sell coins to a real American collector, who then contacted UK-based experts about the apparent availability of extremely rare and valuable examples, and the authorities were alerted.
It was believed the coins were made between 874 CE and 879 CE and were buried by a Viking during this particularly violent period of English history.
They included two extremely rare examples of two-headed coins, showing Alfred of Wessex and Ceolwulf, a figure who was discredited by Saxon writers as a Viking puppet ruler.