British Peer Fined for Digging Up Roman Site
A British peer was fined $15,000 Monday after an employee plowed up the protected site of a Roman town lying under the fields of his estate.
The Marquess of Hertford, who owns Ragley Hall Estate in central England, admitted damaging the remains of the first century settlement of Alcester. He told the court he did not know the damage had been done until after his men had plowed the area, but he accepted full responsibility.
The court in Warwick also ordered him to pay $7,350 in costs.
English Heritage, the preservation group that brought the prosecution, said the site had lain undisturbed for hundreds of years.
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