Anglo-Saxon coin plotters Craig Best and Roger Pilling jailed
Two men have been jailed after being found guilty of plotting to sell rare Anglo-Saxon coins of “immense historical significance” abroad.
The coins, which experts say have helped to re-write the history of the formation of the kingdom of England, are worth an estimated £766,000.
Craig Best, 46, from Bishop Auckland, County Durham, and Roger Pilling, 75, from Loveclough, Lancashire, were both found guilty of conspiracy to convert criminal property following a trial last month.
The pair failed to declare the coins as treasure or hand them over to the Crown.
They were also found guilty of separate charges of possessing the criminal property.
They were jailed on Thursday 4 May for five years and two months.
Passing sentence, the Judge at Durham Crown Court told Craig Best from Bishop Auckland and Roger Pilling from Lancashire they were well aware that the treasure had not been lawfully declared before plotting to sell it on the black market.
The 44 coin collection, which was produced between 874 and 879 AD and buried by a Viking, was recovered by Durham Police during an undercover operation.
Judge James Adkin, sitting at Durham Crown Court, said a further two coins remained outstanding and had been “hidden away”.
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.
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.
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 judge accepted Pilling, having run an engineering business, was a man of good character and Best had a young family who relied on him.
Sharon Watson, for Pilling, said he had been a “hard-working industrious family man and a kind person” who delayed his retirement after his factory burned down to ensure his employees had jobs.
Stephen Garbett, for Best, said he was also hard-working, and runs a business with three employees.He said: “His family are devastated by what has happened, he now has to deal with it.”
During the trial, the jury heard how Craig Best had set up a meeting with an expert at a Durham hotel in May 2019 in order to verify and confirm the coins he possessed were genuine.
The prosecution said Best and Pilling had planned to sell the coins to a buyer in America, but as Best pulled out three of the coins to show the expert, who was actually an undercover officer, he was arrested on the spot and the coins were seized.
The court heard, later that day, Pilling was also arrested at his home, where officers located and seized a further 41 rare coins.
The coins are thought to have originated from a find worth millions, known as the Herefordshire Hoard.
The two metal detectorists, George Powell and Layton Davies. who made that find in Leominster, also failed to declare them as "treasure" and sold them illegally to dealers.
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