A police officer who went to prison for pocketing £15,000 from selling rare Saxon gold coins that didn't belong to him has now learned he could have made over £100,000 if he had been straight.
Amateur detectorist and PC David Cockle, 50, was jailed for 16 months after he admitted the theft of ten early medieval coins which he unearthed and sold secretly for £15,000.
Rules around treasure finds mean they must be officially declared before they can be sold but Cockle failed to tell anyone about 7th-century gold coins he found while metal detecting on a farmer's land.
Now it's emerged that the former detectorist partner and the farmer who he cheated on have shared a payout of £367,200 they got by sticking to the rules - meaning Cockle could not only have avoided losing his reputation and going to prison but also had a six-figure sum instead.
The coins were among 131 found by him and another detectorist in a field in west Norfolk, making it Britain's largest ever hoard of seventh-century gold coins.
