Wreck divers, beware: there could be a hefty cost if you surface with loot from a sunken ship.

Two divers who illegally took items from two German shipwrecks at Scapa Flow off Scotland’s Orkney Islands were each fined €18,000 (about $22,000), according to the BBC. The divers removed artifacts from the wrecks over a four-day period in 2012.

Gordon Meek, 66, and Robert Infante, 48, were seen with items from the wreck as they boarded their boat after diving SMS Markgraf and SMS Kronprinz Wilhelm off Scotland. The two pleaded guilty to violating the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Areas Act of 1979. According to the Orcadian, the two men removed a bulkhead lantern frame, a steam pressure gauge, an electric ship’s bell, a chest microphone, two bulkhead lanterns and a portable lamp from several Scapa Flow wrecks.

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“(The Scapa Flow wrecks) have lain on the seabed for nearly 100 years and the vast majority of those visiting have treated them with the respect they deserve,” Andrew Laing, procurator fiscal for Grampian, Highlands and Islands (Scotland), told the BBC. "It is vitally important that there are laws in place to protect such important sites and, as with this case where there is sufficient evidence of a crime and if it is appropriate and in the public interest to do so, we will prosecute."

Scapa Flow played an important role in many conflicts, including WWI and WWII, and is known as a world-class wreck diving destination, with three German battleships, three light cruisers and a mine-layer highlighting its dive sites. The diveable wrecks — which were scuttled off the Orkney coast in 1919 — are protected as scheduled monuments, and it is illegal to remove artifacts from them.