<<5/05/00 - Ruling awards giant nugget to finder
PERTH, Australia, May 05, 2000 (AP Worldstream via COMTEX) -- A court ruled Friday that a taxi driver and amateur prospector who unearthed a 14.5-pound (6.6-kilogram) gold nugget on someone else's land is allowed to keep it.
George Dimitrovski, 52, found the nugget, valued at about Australian dollars 1 million (U.S. dlrs 590,000), five years ago while prospecting on land owned by Frank Welsh near Marble Bar, 1,200 kilometers (745 miles) north of the Western Australia state capital of Perth.
Welsh complained to police that Dimitrovski had been prospecting illegally on his land. Welsh only became aware of the find after Dimitrovski took the nugget into a local bar to boast.
Dimitrovski was charged with unlawful possession, and the nugget was confiscated and stored in a vault in Perth's mint while the case has been running.
After a complex series of court hearings, West Australian Supreme Court Judge Graeme Scott on Friday upheld a lower court decision throwing out the prosecution case.
Unless there is a further appeal, Dimitrovski will be allowed to keep the nugget.
Dimitrovski said Friday he would not sell the nugget.
``I want to put it on display at the Sydney Olympics and try to get some sort of cover charge on it and give it toward a charity for spastic kids,'' Dimitrovski said.
Copyright 2000 Associated Press, All rights reserved. >>
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