Metal detectorist jailed for trying to sell Anglo Saxon coins to an undercover police officer is ordered to repay £103,000

Daily Mail​

28-04-2025

A metal detectorist who was jailed after hatching an illegal plot to sell Anglo-Saxon coins of great historical significance has been ordered to repay £103,000.
Roger Pilling, 77, from Loveclough, Lancashire, was convicted with co-conspirator Craig Best, 48, after their attempts to sell the criminal property worth £766,000 led them into the hands of an undercover police officer.
Among the stolen goods was 44 ninth-century coins believed to have been buried by a Viking and which have never been declared as treasure, nor have they been handed to the Crown.
Now, Pilling has been told he has three months to repay the money or he could face another 12-month prison sentence.
Pilling and Best were jailed for five years and two months at Durham Crown Court in May 2023.
The coin enthusiasts were convicted of conspiracy to convert criminal property and a separate charge of possession of criminal property.
The coins included two extremely rare examples of two-headed coins, showing Alfred of Wessex and Ceolwulf II of Mercia.
Pilling and Best, 48, previously of Bishop Auckland, County Durham, tried to sell the 44 coins to a real American collector, who contacted UK experts about how such rare pieces were available for sale, and police were called in.
The coins were recovered in a sting operation but two - that Pilling claimed he had broken - were never found.
On Thursday, April 24, Pilling was ordered to repay £103,000 after a confiscation order was granted at Teeside Crown Court.
Adrian Foster, Chief Crown Prosecutor for the CPS Proceeds of Crime Division, said: 'Roger Pilling intended to sell these rare and important coins for his own gain.
'He knew that these coins were stolen treasure and instead of choosing to report a crime, he chose to try and profit from it.
'The CPS worked with the police to value his criminal benefit from the attempted selling of these rare Anglo-Saxon coins, which should have been given to the Crown.
'The Confiscation Order set by the Judge reflects all the assets available to the defendants.
'We will always work to ensure that crime does not pay, and criminals cannot benefit from their ill-gotten gains.'
When sentencing, 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.'
How scheme played out
June 2015: West Mercia Police recover 29 Anglo-Saxon coins from larger hoard that had been found at a farm in Leominster, Herefordshire, as part of Operation Helix.
September 2018: Craig Best contacts a US professor who has a passion for ancient coins and tries to interest him in buying some of the 44 coins somehow acquired by Roger Pilling. These coins are believed to be from the same undeclared find in Leominster known as the Herefordshire Hoard.
May 2019: Undercover police carry out a sting operation and arrest Best at a Durham hotel, where he believed he was meeting a contact of a potential buyer. Pilling is arrested at his Lancashire home later.
November 2019: George Powell, 41, and Layton Davies, 54, found guilty of theft, conspiracy to conceal criminal property and conspiracy to convert criminal property at Worcester Crown Court after they failed to report their find and tried to sell the items. They were jailed for more than 18 years.
August 2021: Best and Pilling are charged with conspiracy to convert criminal property.
April 2023: The pair stand trial at Durham Crown Court, where they are found guilty of hatching an illegal plot to sell the coins abroad. They were jailed for more than five years.
He accepted that Pilling, having run an engineering business, was a man of good character and that Best had a young family who relied on him.
Best was arrested with three coins at a Durham hotel in May 2019 during the police sting operation. He had thought he was meeting a metals expert employed by a broker working for a wealthy US buyer.
But he was in fact speaking to an undercover detective.
Pilling, who according to the judge acquired the collection from the 'black market', was arrested at his home in Loveclough, Lancashire, and a further 41 coins were seized.
The 44 coins originated from the Herefordshire Hoard, discovered in 2015, worth millions of pounds, and which was also not declared.
The undercover police operation was set up after Best tried to sell coins to the American collector, who then contacted UK experts about the apparent availability of extremely rare and valuable examples, and the authorities were alerted.
It was believed the coins were made between 874AD and 879AD and were buried by a Viking during this particularly violent period of English history.
Experts have said the two-headed coins demonstrate a financial and political alliance between the two kings, showing Ceolwulf was more important than reports from Alfred's court later stated.
Sharon Watson, defending Pilling, told the court 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, defending 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.'