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Released On: 20 Mar 2025
Available for over a year
June 2015, Herefordshire. Two Welsh detectorists - George Powell and Layton Davies - stumble upon a Viking hoard estimated to be worth up to £12m.
They could have become very rich and been celebrated as heroes in museums across the land. But instead, they began to hatch a criminal plot. Narrated by Aimee-Ffion Edwards (Detectorists/Slow Horses), this is the story of how to go from the luckiest treasure hunters on earth, to Newport's most wanted.
Enjoy!
"The person who can enjoy the ordinary miserable days, is a happy fella."
Bob Mortimer in 'Gone Hogmanay Fishing'
Looking forward to listening to this, unbelievable that despite the fact it would've made them millionaires this is what happened as a result of their choices
MrKeen92 wrote: Fri Mar 21, 2025 1:07 pm
... unbelievable that despite the fact it would've made them millionaires this is what happened as a result of their choices
Not the first time this sort of thing has happened, either. It is the result that greedy half-wits generate when they think they can get away with it. To begin with, they were detecting the land without permission. Perhaps that ill-conceived start made them think there was nothing to be gained by coming clean about the hoard find, given that they were committing trespass when they located it (Treasure Act 1996: Code of Practice (3rd Revision):
113. Interested parties may expect to receive no rewards at all or abated rewards under the following circumstances:
g. where there are reasonable grounds for believing that the finder was trespassing;
What the buffoons had not considered was that, if caught, they would end up with custodial sentences too, never mind no reward money!
Additionally, with most of the hoard still being missing, George Powell and Layton Davies were issued with Confiscation Orders under the Proceeds of Crime Act, and will be required to pay up over £600 000 each. Those Confiscation Order debts continue to increase:
Where a defendant refuses to pay their Confiscation Order in a timely way, CPS Proceeds of Crime Division can invite the court to impose an additional default sentence on them of up to 14 years' imprisonment. The full debt continues to be in force until it is paid, and interest is charged against it at the civil judgement debt rate, currently 8%.
Bigal831 wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 12:52 pm
You'd think at the very worst they'd have just reburied the treasure and went and asked for Legal Permission to detect .
There is some logic in that, but assumes a level of intelligence which was evidently missing! (and a willingness on the part of the landowner to forgive their trespass). If I were the landowner however they would get only a 2 word response, record any details such as their car registration and report them.
Bigal831 wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 12:52 pm
You'd think at the very worst they'd have just reburied the treasure and went and asked for Legal Permission to detect .
Having now listened to the first two episodes of the podcast, the two detectorists apparently already had permission to detect in a different field of the property, but not the field in which the hoard was located. How difficult would it have been to try asking the landowner for permission to use a second field?
As Phil2401 writes, these two were clearly lacking the required level of intelligence.
"The person who can enjoy the ordinary miserable days, is a happy fella."
Bob Mortimer in 'Gone Hogmanay Fishing'
ManOnTheMoon wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 2:57 pm
Having now listened to the first two episodes of the podcast, the two detectorists apparently already had permission to detect in a different field of the property, but not the field in which the hoard was located. How difficult would it have been to try asking the landowner for permission to use a second field?
As Phil2401 writes, these two were clearly lacking the required level of intelligence.
Have to admit I haven't seen the full story, but if they already had permission to detect on some of the land, why would anybody in their right mind stray beyond the permission boundaries and risk losing their existing permission? Just ask the landowner, as you say!
ManOnTheMoon wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 2:57 pm
Having now listened to the first two episodes of the podcast, the two detectorists apparently already had permission to detect in a different field of the property, but not the field in which the hoard was located. How difficult would it have been to try asking the landowner for permission to use a second field?
As Phil2401 writes, these two were clearly lacking the required level of intelligence.
Hahahaha forgive the pun but that is GOLD An unsurpassed level of stupidity if I've ever seen it
Sadly however, funny as I find that, it doesn't half cause the rest of us good folk further battles in gaining permissions. That landowner will likely NEVER allow anyone else to detect on their land again now and it would certainly impact the decision of others
MrKeen92 wrote: Sat Mar 22, 2025 3:51 pm
Sadly however, funny as I find that, it doesn't half cause the rest of us good folk further battles in gaining permissions. That landowner will likely NEVER allow anyone else to detect on their land again now and it would certainly impact the decision of others
Sadly, you are correct.
"The person who can enjoy the ordinary miserable days, is a happy fella."
Bob Mortimer in 'Gone Hogmanay Fishing'
There are no clear clues on the BBC podcast website (which would be the sensible place to have them, surely?), but hunting around I have found out that there are a total of eight episodes that are expected to be released weekly. Given that episodes 1 and 2 were simultaneously available as podcasts on 20 March, I hope that episode 3 (maybe 3 and 4?) will be available tomorrow, Thursday 27 March.
Whether or not podcast availability matches any (assumed!?) radio broadcast, I don't know, as it appears to be a BBC Radio Wales production.
"The person who can enjoy the ordinary miserable days, is a happy fella."
Bob Mortimer in 'Gone Hogmanay Fishing'
Thanks for flagging this. I'm just listening to episode 1. It's a good listen but there is a howler at 18 minutes, where the presenter says "The Treasure Act requires that any item thought to be more than 200 years old must be reported to the coroner within 14 days of its discovery"!!!
This is of course complete garbage. If anyone were to believe this, they would expect us to report all our toasted Georgian halfpennies. I have reported the error to the BBC.
.
An unsurpassed level of stupidity if I've ever seen it 
