ring of joy

London, June 11: A beggar who found a ?500 diamond ring in his collection bowl has been told by police that he can keep it, because the 28-day deadline during which it could have been claimed has now expired.

Tim Pockett found the 2.5-carat diamond solitaire gold ring after it was discarded by a man who said he had been spurned by his girlfriend.

Cashing in the ring would represent a good day’s work for Pockett, 46, a divorced father of three who normally makes up to ?20 a day begging outside Marks & Spencer in Shrewsbury town centre with his dog, Hobo. He became homeless when his marriage broke down in 1990.

He said: “I was playing my whistle and I heard a man say, ‘That will keep you going for a couple of days.’ When I looked up he had gone, but I later noticed that there was something in my bowl. At first I thought it was costume jewellery but when I picked it up it had a hallmark.

“I was really very surprised. I didn’t know what to do with it at first.”

He handed it in to police and investigations showed that, moments before giving it to Pockett last month, the owner of the ring, thought to be in his thirties, had tried to sell it to a second-hand jewellery shop, only to be told he needed the proper documentation as he had not bought it there.

The man told Melvyn Graham, of Marni Second-Hand and Antique Jewellery, that his girlfriend had thrown the ring back at him and he wanted to get rid of it. “He seemed very upset,” said Graham.

A spokesman for West Mercia police said that in the past 28 days no attempt had been made to contact police about the ring.

Chief inspector Paul Moxley said: “The time is now up for the original owner of the ring to come forward. He has not done so and therefore the homeless man who handed it in can now collect it.”