A metal detectorist convicted of stealing a £3m Viking treasure hoard has had his jail sentence extended after he failed to pay back more than £600,000. Layton Davies and George Powell 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 and instead selling a large number of items for significant gain. The treasure, much of which was Anglo-Saxon but was typical of a Viking burial hoard, was dug up on Herefordshire farmland on 2 June 2015. Davies, 56, formerly of Pontypridd, who is already serving an eight-and-a-half year sentence for the crime, was handed a further five years and three months after failing to pay back £600,006 made from selling the treasure, plus interest of £70,375. Experts believe the treasure would have provided fresh information on previously unknown alliances between the ancient kings of Mercia and Wessex. Debbie Price, the deputy chief crown prosecutor at the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) proceeds of crime division, said: “Greed led Layton Davies to ignore his duty to report the found treasure and instead sell it for his own benefit. “An experienced detectorist, Davies would have known he was entitled to half of the proceeds of legal sale of the treasure, instead choosing to deprive the landowner and public by stealing this exceptional and significant treasure. “This case shows that the CPS takes our duty to ensure crime doesn’t pay seriously. Davies has failed to pay so we have taken him back to court and his additional default sentence means he now faces a further five years in prison.” The CPS said that between 2018 and 2023, more than £480m has been recovered from convicted criminals through confiscation orders. About £105m of that had been returned to victims of crime.