Brits will remember the phrase from their childhood, “finders keepers losers weepers,” but for non-native English speakers the title requires a little explanation: he who finds something, keeps it – tough luck on the person who lost it.

Only, that is not the case in reality, as a 58-year-old beach comber found out to his detriment. A.S.H. assiduously scoured a beach in the north of Spain with his metal detector after each storm, and he often found lost stuff worth a bob or two.

In fact, he had found quite a few gold items and had sold them at one of these establishments that buys gold and had pocketed a total of 3,500 euros for 18 different items of lost property.

The trouble is that the law stipulates that if you find something you must hand it in, but if after two years nobody claims it, you can keep it. He failed to hand it in and pocketed the money from its sale.

As you know, these establishments that purchase your jewellery, etc, are required by law to not only hang on to it for a stipulated period, but also to register the full details of their customers.

The police regularly visit these shops and check their records, so it was that they found that our friend had sold items containing inscriptions, such as names that did not match his own, so they paid him a visit.

After taking a statement from him on the 29th of February, he was arrested and then released pending trial. It wasn’t made clear exactly what he stands accused of, but it is probably theft but along the lines of dealing with stolen goods, even though they were lost not stolen.

(UK law covers this with the specific ‘theft by finding’ offence) Ed.

(News: Loredo, Basque Lands, Spain)