Couple face jail for taking sand from Sardinia
A French couple who were caught with 14 plastic bottles worth of Sardinian sand in the back of their SUV face up to six years in jail.
They claimed they wanted the sand, from Chia Beach, as a souvenir and didn’t realise it was an offence to take it.
Police found the 40kg of sand as the pair were about to board a ferry in Porto Torres to Toulon, France.
Sardinia is famous for its white sand and it is strictly forbidden to remove it.
For years, residents have complained about the theft of sand, pebbles and shells by visitors to the island.
A new law came into force in 2017 forbidding the trading of Sardinia’s natural assets.
Visitors, mainly Europeans, bottle the sand up to auction on the internet.
Bev
Editor in chief Bev Fearis has been a travel journalist for 25 years. She started her career at Travel Weekly, where she became deputy news editor, before joining Business Traveller as deputy editor and launching the magazine’s website. She has also written travel features, news and expert comment for the Guardian, Observer, Times, Telegraph, Boundless and other consumer titles and was named one of the top 50 UK travel journalists by the Press Gazette.
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