Pair Jailed For Taking More Than 100 Artefacts From Wreckage Of Royal Navy Vessel

Cover Image: Nigel Ingram (pictured left), 57, of London Road, Teynham, and John Blight (right), 58, of Old River Way in Winchelsea, East Sussex. (Pictures: Kent Police)

Two men have been jailed for failing to disclose more than 100 items taken from a sunken World War One Royal Navy warship.

Nigel Ingram was jailed for four years and John Blight for three-and-a-half years.

Mr Blight, 58, and Mr Ingram, 57, were found guilty of fraud relating to their failure to disclose recovered items in order to make a financial gain.

HMS Hermes was built in the late 19th century and converted into an aircraft ferry and depot ship ready for the start of the First World War.

The vessel was sunk by a German submarine in the Dover Strait, in October 1914, causing the loss of 44 British lives.

Previously, the court heard the items seized included the ships bells, a torpedo hatch, launch panel, metal ingots and chinaware which had not been declared, as well as about £16,000 in cash.

A number of photographs were also located on Ingrim's computer, one of which showed the condenser of the Hermes on the back of his boat - just four hours after it had been boarded by the French surveillance officers.

The total value of the wreck collected was estimated at being more than £150,000, Kent Police said.

Investigating officer PC Anne Aylett of Kent Police said:

"The HMS Hermes and other shipwrecks of its kind are legally protected for a reason, and that is because they form an important part of the history of this country.

Mark Harrison, head of heritage crime and policing advice for Historic England, added:

"This removal means that part of our national story is lost and can never be replaced, particularly where historic artefacts have been sold for scrap, as in this case."