The 'curse' of the £12m Viking treasure haul: How hapless duo like TV's The Detectorists struck gold - before a black market plot led to jail, a life on-the-run and the mystery of the missing coins
On June 2 2015, the lives of two amateur metal detectorists were changed forever after they stumbled across a hoard of Anglo-Saxon coins and gold jewellery worth up to £12million.
George Powell, a convicted burglar, and Layton Davies, a modest grandfather, were the unlikely pair who were set to walk away with a fortune when they uncovered the treasure which experts believe were hidden by the Vikings in the ninth century.
What instead followed was a series of chaotic decisions fuelled by greed that would culminate in prison sentences, life-on-the-run and a 'cursed' mystery haul that has barely been recovered 10 years later.
Resembling the hapless characters in BBC hit show The Detectorists, Powell and Davies had spent years leisurely roaming over rolling fields, hoping they would come across a life-changing hoard that would make them filthy rich.
Then one fateful summer's day in June 2015, Powell, who had 22 previous convictions for 55 offences involving burglary and deception, and Davies, a school caretaker from Pontypridd, thought they had accomplished their dream.
Davies, a model detectorist, perhaps wishes he had never agreed to make the 110-mile round trip to farmland in Eye, near Leominster, in Herefordshire, with serial offender Powell in his VW Campervan.
What started off as an uneventful day, with typical hours of mundane detectoring, was suddenly interrupted by the unmistakable 'beep' of their machines. Perhaps it was the usual worthless tat - scrap metal or some old tractor parts.
They could never have imagined that once they started digging, they would uncover a 1,000-year-old hoard of Anglo-Saxon coins and jewels that experts believe were buried by Vikings. This time they had struck gold.
Pictured left to right: George Powell, Simon Wicks and Layton Davies. Wicks helped the pair to try and sell the hoard and all were jailed
Coin dealer Paul Wells (pictured) was also convicted after he kept some of the stash. He was the only one spared jail
Only 31 of the coins and pieces of jewellery discovered at farmland in Eye, near Leominster, Herefordshire, have ever been recovered, with the majority of the hoard still missing
The treasure dated back 1,100 years and included a ninth century gold ring (pictured)
It was after this Eureka moment that Powell and Davies began to make a series of misjudged decisions that led to their downfall.
Their first was to boastfully take a photo of the hoard laid out on a Tesco carrier bag - a picture which would show the scale and value of their haul and prove to be the incredibly damning evidence.
Despite deleting the photo in a bid to cover their tracks, it did not take long for police to uncover it in their investigation to bring down the amateur detectorists.
The photo was analysed by Dr Gareth Williams, an expert consultant in both Viking and medieval coins at the British Museum, who estimated there was a 300-coin hoard worth £12million.
A ninth-century gold ring, a dragon's head bracelet, a silver ingot, a fifth crystal rock pendant and up to 300 coins, some from the reign of King Alfred, were part of the historic collection.
The collection of items, many of which were Anglo Saxon but are typical of a Viking burial hoard, dated back 1,100 years to the reign of King Alfred the Great.
It is thought the trove was buried by someone within the Great Viking Army in either 878 or 879, which by then was being forced back east by an alliance of Saxon forces.
Had Powell and Davies abided by Treasury laws, they could have walked away as millionaires - but they were responsible for their own downfall after attempting to sell their hoard illegally and keep the profits in secret.
Treasure belongs to the state and must be declared to the coroner within 14 days under the 1996 Treasury Act.
At this point, the hoard is then valued, bought by a museum and the proceeds are shared between the finder and the owner of the land.
Resembling the hapless characters in BBC hit show The Detectorists, Powell and Davies had spent years leisurely roaming over rolling fields. Pictured: Toby Jones and Mackenzie Crook starring in the show
George Powell (pictured) is still on the run after refusing to attend court for a confiscation order of £600,000
Historians believe the coins were of Anglo-Saxon origin and had been hidden by a Viking as they had been in the area around that time
The treasure thieves tried to flog items in small batches to various customers on the black market instead of reporting the discovery
A judge said the treasure-hunters had 'cheated the public' by concealing the treasure - like this silver ingot - which 'belonged to the nation'
Another flaw in Powell's treasure quest was failing to seek permission to dig on the land where the hoard was found.
Normally, a detectorist gains permission and they make a deal to share and proceeds, usually taking half each.
Powell had sought permission for a different field and tenant, potentially too scared to approach the owner of the field where he found the hoard who was a nobleman - Lord Cawley.
Instead of declaring their stash, they embarked on a treacherous journey to steal it, enlisting the help of coin dealers.
Initially, Powell and Davies boasted of their collection, sharing photos of the coins on websites and getting them valued by Paul Wells, a coin dealer at a Cardiff antiques emporium.
Joining the series of slip-ups, Wells kept a small handful of coins and was arrested alongside Powell, Davies and a fourth member - Simon Wicks.
Coin collector Wicks met Powell at a M4 service station and took a hoard of rare coins to a coin dealer in Mayfair. He denied Powell had given him the Anglo-Saxon coins, despite the patina precisely matching the others from the hoard.
Knowing they were about to be busted, Powell and Davies reported their discoveries to the National Museum of Wales, handing over three pieces of gold jewellery and two coins which they claimed was all that they found.
The police issued an arrest warrant for treasure thief George Powell (pictured here in 2019) after he failed to appear in court
A four-year investigation by West Mercia Police led to all four men being convicted at a trial at Worcester Crown Court in 2019.
Prosecutor Kevin Hegarty KC told the trial it was as if the hoard had a bewitching effect on all who came across it.
Hegarty said an expert valuation of the hoard had found it could be worth between £3 to £12million, adding a find of 'immense archaeological, historical and academic value' had been lost to the nation.
Powell never gave evidence at his trial, while Davies embarrassingly claimed they owned the coins already and took them to a field in a rucksack and laid them out on the Tesco bag in a bid to claim false provenance.
The jury did not fall for this and all four men were convicted - with Wells the only one who was spared jail.
Powell was sentenced to 10 years in prison, later reduced 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.
But of course, the saga did not end there. Powell and Davies were subjected to £600,000 confiscation orders under the Proceeds of Crime Act. If this was not paid or the coins were not returned, they would serve a further five years and three months in jail.
Unable to pay the money, Davies returned to jail - while Powell refused and has been at large ever since.
Still brazenly toying with the law, when Gwent Police posted a picture of Powell on their Facebook appealing to his whereabouts in October 2024, the treasure-hunter commented that he didn't like the image they used because he was hungover when it was taken.
When a reporter for the South West Argus messaged him on Facebook, he insisted he was not on the run and he was 'simply just not guilty of anything, nor is he a threat to public safety'.
Powell 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.'
He added: 'I'm not running from anything and apparently I'm being recalled back too prison for missing an appointment I don't deserve especially after serving an large sentence for a 'never-heard-of so-called' crime.'
Despite insisting he had not stolen anything, the location of the rest of the hoard remains shrouded in mystery 10 years on.
Photos show there were an estimated 300 coins, yet there are potentially 250 coins that have never been recovered from one of the most fascinating hoards in history.
Powell has been urged to hand himself in by none other than Wicks, now a grandfather-of-nine who never thought he would wind up in prison.
He told The Sun last week: 'These coins have been a curse from the day they were found. Prison is the last place I thought I'd end up in life.'
He added: 'I've heard George is on the run, which is crazy. If you are out there mate, you should really hand yourself in.
'I wish I could speak to him and talk some sense into him. 'I'd say, "Do the decent thing and hand the bloody stuff in".'
