Metal detectorists’ bid to have sentences reduced dismissed by Court of Appeal

Two metal detectorists who planned to “delete history” by illegally selling Anglo-Saxon coins have had bids to reduce their sentences dismissed by the Court of Appeal.

Roger Pilling, 76, and Craig Best, 48, were convicted of conspiring to sell 44 ninth-century coins worth £766,000 and jailed for five years and two months at Durham Crown Court in May 2023.

The coins, which were never declared as treasure, were believed to have been buried by a Viking and included two extremely rare examples of two-headed coins, showing Alfred of Wessex and Ceolwulf, a figure discredited by Saxon writers as a Viking puppet ruler.

The two men attempted to sell the coins, described by a judge as being of “great historical and cultural value” to the UK, to someone they believed was a US buyer but who was in fact an undercover police officer.

On Wednesday, the pair asked the Court of Appeal to reduce their sentences, with lawyers for Best telling judges the sentence was “manifestly excessive”.

But three judges dismissed the appeal bids at the end of the hearing in London, with Mr Justice Murray stating that the plan was an “attempt to delete history” and that “it would have significantly diluted the nation’s shared history” had it succeeded.

Best, previously of Bishop Auckland, County Durham, was arrested with three coins at a Durham hotel in May 2019 in a police sting operation.

He was detained after meeting a man he believed was a metals expert employed by a broker working for a wealthy US-based buyer, but who was in fact an undercover detective.

Pilling was arrested at his home in Loveclough, Lancashire, with a further 41 coins seized.

The two men were later convicted of conspiracy to convert criminal property and a separate charge of possession of criminal property, with the trial in 2023 told that Pilling had acquired the collection on the “black market”.

The coins were estimated to have been made between 874 CE and 879 CE.

The sentencing judge found that the 44 coins were part of a larger, undeclared find known as the Herefordshire or Leominster Hoard, which was discovered in 2015 and is worth millions of pounds, but which was also not declared.

On Wednesday, the Court of Appeal heard that Pilling asked Best to help him sell the coins.

Chris Morrison, representing Best, said his client was “approached” by Pilling to sell the items and became the “de facto agent of the sale”.

He said: “I concede immediately that this is serious misconduct and it is clear this court regards it as such.

“But it is my submission that, when one perhaps considers the matter, the sentence in relation to my client may be too high.”

Pilling, who represented himself, made written submissions to the court but did not attend the hearing.

The court heard that Pilling claimed “sufficient regard to his mitigation, his age, medical condition and being dependable on his wife” was not taken into account when he was sentenced.

Dismissing the appeal bids, Mr Justice Murray, sitting with Lord Justice William Davis and Judge Shaun Smith KC, said the pair “hatched a plan to sell the coins” on the “black market” to buyers in the US because “they knew the coins could not be safely sold in the UK to a legitimate dealer”.

The judge added that the three coins Best and Pilling had planned to sell included “one coin that rewrites the history of King Alfred and the little-known King of Mercia”, and that by trying to sell the coins abroad “meant history would likely be lost to the nation forever”.