To be horrified at this sentence: 5 years! For a non violent crime

[TheAudie]

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12047811/Metal-detectorists-jailed-five-years-trying-sell-766-000-Anglo-Saxon-coins.html#comments-12047811

If they are willing to steal, cheat and lie then I say prison is the best place for them!!

This case has been dragging on since 2015!

Yes because the current government/crown is so good at evenly distributing the wealth they currently raise from us. I look forward to my share of this find while we pay nothing whatsoever to imprison two people for five years.

They likely have previous

Pair of idiots

Why is this a crime?

To protect the historical value of finds like this.

They have also hidden some of the artefacts, not telling police where they have hidden them!

Not helping themselves are they?

I believe society would benefit from an overhaul of the justice system. The default for non-violent crime should be community service. A well-run program would benefit local communities and give offenders a chance to really see what making a positive contribution can do.

because they knowingly purchased stolen goods and then conspired to sell them on.
i'm not sure what's difficult about his....

I think it may help to read the sentencing guidelines on some of the crimes that are being discussed here and also to realise that there are both mitigating factors and aggravating.

So each crime type has a guideline sentence (so say 4-20 years) and it will depend on remorse, if they plead guilty or not guilty, other offences committed if they have offended before etc etc etc as to which end of the scale they get sentenced at....

So it is entirely possible a someone being convinced of rape, on a first offence who pleads guilty and who has never previously offended can receive a lower sentence than someone convicted of multiple counts of fraud, deception, theft, with many previous convictions....

It doesn't reflect on any single victim. The victim of the rapist will be more harmed but the victim(s) of the fraudster will be far far more numerous. Gutter rags like the Metro look for the extremes of sentancing as they are always unusual cases.

https://www.sentencingcouncil.org.uk/crown-court/

Errm, they do? Ever heard of Treasure Trove?

There is no point in imposing a large fine unless you know the accused have the means to pay it.

I think the point is not so much whether these men are a threat but the need for a deterrent. We can't be seen to be treating the theft of three-quarters of a million quid as relatively trivial.

Exactly this

Career criminals. Deserve everything they get.

Someone i knew of murdered his wife and got 2 years.

But what does that have to do with this particular crime?

Murder is a mandatory life sentence with a minimum term of 15 years as far as I know...

So he will have been deemed to have committed a different offence...

It will have been downgraded to manslaughter as some sort of plea bargain.

The crappy sentences we have for rapists in this country is an unrelated matter…

This crime isn’t serious because it’s a matter of money or fraud. The coins are part of all our history and heritage, and by selling them on the black market they are depriving us all of the change to share in them and understand more of this period. If they had reported them legally, they would have been paid half of the sale value (shared with the landowner) so they are stealing from the landowner as well as from all of us.

I agree that rapists and violent offenders should be getting much harsher sentences than they often receive.
However, that being true doesn't mean a long sentence was unwarranted in this case as a deterrent for others who think looting antiquities is ok. These men were dealing in artefacts that were dug up during an illegal search, then illegally concealed, then illegally sold-on. This find should have been reported so it could be studied where it was buried; by archaeologists, then handed to a museum so everyone could see it, and understand its context.

They'd likely get NO time if they were rspists.

I think if you look at the link I posted minimum is 4 years....

Although you may be saying they don't get convicted?

You need to read and research much more. Why do you think you have the right to make uneducated comments like that?

Would you care to provide the evidence for the basis of your comment regarding the ‘previous’ Mr Pilling has?

You won’t find any, and so you are clearly the idiot. Wouldn’t you agree?