A metal detectorist convicted of stealing a £3m Viking treasure hoard has had his jail sentence extended after failing to repay more than £600,000. Layton Davies, 56, formerly of Pontypridd, was already serving an eight-and-a-half-year sentence for the crime when he received an additional five years and three months for non-payment.
Davies and George Powell were jailed in 2019 for failing to declare the collection of buried treasure dating back 1,100 years to the reign of King Alfred the Great. Instead, they sold a large number of items for significant gain. The treasure, much of which was Anglo-Saxon but typical of a Viking burial hoard, was dug up on Herefordshire farmland on 2 June 2015.
The Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Davies failed to pay back £600,006 made from selling the treasure, plus interest of £70,375. Experts believe the hoard would have provided fresh information on previously unknown alliances between the ancient kings of Mercia and Wessex.
Debbie Price, deputy chief crown prosecutor at the CPS proceeds of crime division, said: “Greed led Layton Davies to ignore his duty to report the found treasure and instead sell it for his own benefit. An experienced detectorist, Davies would have known he was entitled to half of the proceeds of legal sale of the treasure, instead choosing to deprive the landowner and public by stealing this exceptional and significant treasure.”
The CPS added that between 2018 and 2023, more than £480m had been recovered from convicted criminals through confiscation orders, with about £105m returned to victims of crime.
