Gold cast-off makes beggar's day

A bigger struck lucky when he found a £500 gold ring that an angry lover had thrown out after his girlfriend said “no” to his marriage proposal.

Tim Pockett was begging at the side of the road in Shrewbury when the spurned lover threw the ring in his collection pot.

Being honest, Mr Pockett handed the ring into the police, who discovered that it was a 2.5 carat diamond solitaire white gold ring, according to the Daily Mail.

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'd gone, but I later noticed something in my bowl."

Mr Pockett went on to say that he initially thought it was a piece of costume jewellery but that he noticed it had a hallmark and then decided to hand it in.

Following enquiries by the police it emerged that the original owner of the ring had initially tried to sell it to a second-hand jewellery store, but was not allowed as he didn’t have a proof of purchase. He fled in tears, allegedly.

Mr Pockett will now have to wait 28 days, in case the original owner comes to collect the gold ring, before he becomes the lawful owner of the piece.