Fugitive metal detectorist probably sold £5m Viking hoard 'for a song'
The Mirror goes on the hunt for wanted George Powell and the missing treasure that he stole as his mother's partner says he is penniless and probably flogged off the loot for a pittance
A rogue metal detectorist on the run for stealing a Viking hoard worth up to £5.2million probably sold the missing treasure "for a song", his mother's partner has said. George Powell failed to declare the coins and jewellery that had been buried for over 1,100 years and is now wanted for failing to hand it back.
Powell has previously admitted his aim was to become rich and "get the payout", only for his greed to end in his downfall. Images showing him and fellow detectorist Layton Davies, 56, holding the treasure provided the evidence that jailed them. Like misfit friends Andy and Lance in the BBC series Detectorists, the pair had spent years scouring the countryside searching for treasure.
Worcester crown court heard there may have been up to 300 coins - worth up to £5,285,250 - buried at the farm near Leominster, Herefordshire, where Powell and Davies unearthed the hoard in June 2015. Around 200 coins and some of the jewellery remain unaccounted for.
The Daily Mirror can reveal that Powell, 45, stands accused of conning his mother's partner out of more than £20,000. Speaking from his home in Newport, South Wales, minutes after two police officers visited the flat searching for the selfish thief, Ray Gibson, 77, said: "He's had thousands and thousands of pounds out of me, giving me wonky information. He sold me Krugerrands which were all duff when I had them checked.
"He sold me a Rolex watch still in the box. He said the paperwork was coming but it was a snide. He had £21,000 in cash. He's a rip off. I think it's just in his genes." Asked if he expected Powell to pay it back, Ray said: "To be quite honest he hasn't got anything." On the whereabouts of the coins, he added: "God knows, they've probably been sold for a song."
Powell failed to appear at Birmingham Magistrates Court on 8 January. He was due to have been sentenced for failing to repay £600,000, the money a judge had earlier decided was his share of the missing coins and jewellery. Davies, from Pontypridd, is serving an extra five years and three months in prison for failing to pay his share.
Ray said Powell had told his mother he was living in the Birmingham area and he hadn't seen him for around a year. It comes after Powell told his local newspaper in November that he wasn't on the run because he had done nothing wrong.
He said: "I was convicted in 2019 for finding treasure in a field that I had permission to be on. Assumptions found me guilty and I received 6 and half years in jail. Rapists don't get anywhere near that sentence and what I did wasn't a crime because as you know, no one reported it lost or stolen with it being in the ground for 1500 years.
"I was lucky enough to find it and declare the items but hearsay and the corruption sent me to prison, away from my children, family and friends."
Speaking to the Mirror two years ago, Powell said he wanted to stage an archaeological excavation at the spot where he found the hoard on live TV. He wrote: "I understand that the farmer, museum will be happy for a live dig at the site of interest that could be a burial and so on which would no doubt bring in many viewers world wide."
He added in another message: "This can be big done right and Im sure we all involved can make it big."
Giving evidence at a proceeds of crime hearing in 2022, Powell claimed he only found 51 coins and sold the unrecovered 20 for just £10,000. He said of the money: "I gambled it away. I've got a bit of a naughty habit." Davies knew nothing about him selling any of the coins, he said.
Powell said he sold 20 coins to dealer Simon Wicks who he met at M4 service stations and was later jailed for five years for concealment. Powell, who was jailed for six-and-a -half years for theft and concealment, said: "We're metal detectorists, you want to become rich to get the payout."
Asked why he changed his mind and decided to give evidence, he said: "I've got nothing to lose. I've lost my partner, I'm in prison. Your honour and the public deserve the right to know the truth. Prison has made the best of me." School technician Davies, a grandfather, was said to have told Powell to hand in the treasure and had himself previously declared 100 finds.
Asked if he felt guilty that his friend could now face more jail time, Powell said: "I do partially, but it's his choice, he's a grown man. If he didn't want to be there, he didn't have to be there." By law treasure must be declared and if it is later sold, the money is split 50/50 between the finder and land- owner.
The hoard included a 9th century gold ring, a dragon's head arm bracelet, at least one silver ingot and a small crystal rock pendant held in thin strips of gold dating to the 5th or 6th century. Among the silver coins were the extremely rare "two emperors" depicting King Alfred of Wessex and Ceolwulf II of Mercia - which reveal how the two kingdoms were coming together in the early stages of the formation of England.
The hoard was probably hidden by a retreating Viking soldier after being defeated by Alfred the Great in 878.
Craig Best, from County Durham, and Roger Pilling, from Lancashire, were each jailed for five years and two months in 2023 after trying to sell 44 rare Anglo-Saxon coins worth £766,000. They were thought to be part of the hoard uncovered by Powell and Davies. The rest is still missing.
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