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+--- Thread: First prison sentences for illegal metal detecting (/showthread.php?tid=4707)
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First prison sentences for illegal metal detecting - vulpes - 8th January 2013
[h=2]From the SALon newsletter http://www.sal.org.uk/salon/
For the first time in England, two metal-detector users have been given suspended custodial sentences and Anti-Social Behaviour Orders (ASBOs) for illegal metal-detecting activities on a protected site. Peter Cox, aged 69, and Darren West, aged 51, both from Northamptonshire, were sentenced by Northampton Crown Court on 19 December 2012 to one yearâs imprisonment, suspended for two years, after pleading guilty to stealing artefacts from and causing serious damage to a scheduled monument at Chester Farm, near Irchester in Northamptonshire.
[/h]The men were also sentenced to 150 hours of community service, a curfew, confiscation of their metal-detecting equipment and compensation for the damage caused to the scheduled monument. They were given Anti-Social Behaviour Orders that restrict their future use of metal-detecting equipment.
Northamptonshire Police launched an investigation after two English Heritage officers witnessed the two men metal detecting on the scheduled monument last July. Damage had also been caused to the scheduled monument by the excavation of trenches, which had been illegally dug in search of artefacts. A large quantity of Iron Age, Roman and medieval coins, metal artefacts and pottery, along with metal-detecting equipment and documents relating to the scheduled monument, were recovered when the police raided their homes.
Mike Harlow, Governance and Legal Director at English Heritage, said: âThe sentence sets an important watershed in the combat against illegal metal detecting and acknowledges its true impact on society. These are not people enjoying a hobby or professionals carrying out a careful study. They are thieves using metal detectors like a burglar uses a jemmy. The material they are stealing belongs to the landowner and the history they are stealing belongs to all of us.â
First prison sentences for illegal metal detecting - Dinosaur - 8th January 2013
'bout time... :face-approve:
First prison sentences for illegal metal detecting - P Prentice - 8th January 2013
compensation for the damage caused to the scheduled monument! wonder what that was?
First prison sentences for illegal metal detecting - pdurdin - 8th January 2013
£750 according to the BBC article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-20799549
First prison sentences for illegal metal detecting - P Prentice - 8th January 2013
pdurdin Wrote:£750 according to the BBC article: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-northamptonshire-20799549well if thats the going rate we can all have a go!
First prison sentences for illegal metal detecting - CARTOON REALITY - 9th January 2013
Quote:£750 according to the BBC article
I think the judge must have used BAJR's rates
First prison sentences for illegal metal detecting - pdurdin - 9th January 2013
Backfilling a few (probably small) holes and returfing doesn't cost much. What sort of compensation would be appropriate for the archaeology they may or may not have destroyed?
Perhaps they should be required to backfill large scale excavations by hand. Let the punishment fit the crime, etc!
First prison sentences for illegal metal detecting - BAJR - 9th January 2013
Quote:I think the judge must have used BAJR's rates
I still operate in pennies and shillings ... 750 is a years wages shurely!
But it was as good as we were going to get.
the Metal DEtecting Asbo... lol!
First prison sentences for illegal metal detecting - Hamish - 10th January 2013
I thought that there had been some other prison sentences given to metal detectorists in the past. Or is this just the first time someone from English Heritage has actually caught someone in the act of metal detecting on a SAM?
First prison sentences for illegal metal detecting - geo - 15th January 2013
Pity that the sentence was suspended - i am sure that a proper custodial sentence would have sent a better message to those who may be involved in such activities. Maybe next time ?