A METAL detectorist convicted for his role in stealing a £3 million Viking-era hoard of coins and jewellery has been told he cannot appeal a £600,000 confiscation order.

George Powell and Layton Davies were jailed in 2019 for failing to declare the collection of buried treasure dating back 1,100 years to the reign of King Alfred the Great, instead selling a large number of items for significant gain.

The items, many of which were Anglo Saxon but are typical of a Viking burial hoard, were dug up on Herefordshire farmland on June 2 2015.

Powell, from Newport, South Wales, is serving a six-and-a-half year sentence, while Davies, from Pontypridd, is serving five years.

At Worcester Crown Court in December 2022, both men were ordered by His Honour Judge Cartwright to pay just over £600,000 each or five years will be added to their sentences, according to West Mercia Police.

Powell made an application to appeal against the confiscation order, but it was refused by judges at the Court of Appeal on Tuesday.

Lord Justice Dingemans, Mr Justice Wall and Judge Sylvia De Bertodano said in their ruling that Judge Cartwright’s order was “fair, well-reasoned, logical and founded on the evidence”.