8th January 2013, 03:44 PM
[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
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
[INDENT]Shiny assed county mounty, office lurker, coffee junkie and facebook scanner[/INDENT]
