Police are hunting for a man who discovered and pocketed an incredible trove of Viking gold worth £300 million dating back 1,100 years after he failed to turn up at court.
George Powell quite literally struck gold when he stumbled upon the amazing Viking hoard with his pal Layton Davies in Hertfordshire.
Among the stash were a collection of 300 coins, a ninth-century gold ring, a dragon’s head bracelet, and other bits of jewellery,
The pair were rumbled trying to flog the hoard on the black market in 2015. Powell and Davies, along with coin sellers Paul Wells and Simon Wicks, were convicted of conspiring to conceal the treasure in 2019.
Powell was sentenced to 10 years in prison, later cut to six and a half years on appeal. Davies was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison, later reduced to five years on appeal.
Police have now issued a warrant for Powell’s arrest after he failed to appear at Birmingham Magistrates Court on January 8.
Powell was also ordered to appear in court earlier this month for failing to repay £600,000 ordered by a judge.
Only 31 of the coins – worth between £10,000 and £50,000 – and pieces of jewellery have ever been recovered.
The vast bulk of the valuable hoard remains missing.
Judge Nicholas Cartwright said during an initial sentencing hearing that the thieves had “cheated the public” by hiding the treasure which “belonged to the nation.”
He said: “You acted in a way which was greedy and selfish. You clumsily dug out everything you could find and put the soil back and left without speaking to the farmer, the farmer’s mother or anybody else.
“If you had obtained the permissions and agreements responsible metal detectorists are advised to obtain and had gone on to act within the law, you could have expected to have had a half share or third share of £3 million to share between the two of you.
“You could not have done worse than £500,000 each, but you wanted more.”
Historians believed the coins were Anglo-Saxon and to have been hidden by a Viking. One of them was a double-headed coin, showing two rulers of England – Alfred the Great, who ruled Wessex, and Ceolwulf II of Mercia.
Experts said this showed there was an alliance previously not thought to exist between the kings, changing what we know about the unification of England.
The hoard is set to go on permanent display at Hereford Museum which raised £776,250 to buy it.
