Nobleman Fined $15,000 for Plowing Site of Roman Ruins

The Marquess of Hertford was fined $15,000 today for plowing up a Roman ruin and then told the judge: “I’ll send you a check.”

Hertford admitted violating Britain’s Ancient Monuments and Archaeology Act by damaging the remains of a Roman settlement on his 3,000-acre estate near Stratford-Upon-Avon in July, 1985.

Prosecutor Coleman Treacy told the court that the site of a First-Century Roman settlement had not been plowed for hundreds of years.

After it was plowed by the nobleman’s staff, people with metal detectors arrived looking for Roman coins. About 1,000 pieces of glass and pottery were found, but no coins, Treacy said.

Hertford told the court that he had understood from the Department of the Environment that “normal farming activities, and plowing is the most normal one can think of, were all right.”