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The Independent UK
The Independent UK
National
Stephanie Wareham

Career criminal jailed for stealing 350-year-old map from National Maritime Museum

Melvin West, 70, used a Stanley knife to slice one of 12 maps out of an atlas, printed in 1684, by Dutch cartographer Frederick de Wit - (Metropolitan Police)

A career criminal who stole a “historically unique” 350-year-old map from a museum and refused to reveal its location has been jailed for three years.

Melvin West, 70, was told by a judge he had led police, the courts and the National Maritime Museum in Greenwich a “merry dance” about the whereabouts of the map he stole from the Caird Library in February last year.

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