DetectingWales.com

Courtesy of BBC online - 16/02/09

Britain's heritage is under threat from illegal metal detector users - or "nighthawkers" - who face little chance of being caught, a report says.
The UK-wide study found the threat to archaeological items was high, but prosecutions were at an all-time low and penalties "woefully insufficient". The English Heritage-commissioned report said criminals were using auction websites to sell antiquities.

Many items are said to be worth little financially but of historical value.

Illegal metal detecting is defined as "the search and removal of antiquities from the ground using metal detectors without the permission of the landowners or on prohibited land such as scheduled monuments". It is a form of theft and can be prosecuted under the Theft Act.

English Heritage said responsible metal detecting provided a valuable record of history, but nighthawkers - by hoarding the finds or selling them on without recording - were thieves.

The crime is most prevalent in central and eastern England but the survey found it was almost unheard of in Northern Ireland.

Counties with high incidences of nighthawking included Lincolnshire, Norfolk and Suffolk.

NIGHTHAWKING HOTSPOTS
Yorkshire (30 sites hit)
Norfolk (23)
Essex (14)
Oxfordshire (13)
Suffolk (12)
Lincolnshire (11)
Kent (11)
Source: English Heritage
English Heritage said the 240 sites attacked between 1995 and 2008 were likely to be a fraction of the true scale of the under-reported crime.

More than a third of the attacks were at scheduled monuments - key sites of historical interest. The study found only one in seven landowners who discovered they had been targeted by nighthawkers informed the authorities.

Only 26 cases resulted in legal action, with most offenders handed a small fine, in one case for as little as £38.

Researchers also found about one in every 20 archaeological excavation sites was targeted by thieves. They said Roman sites often served as a honey-pot for thieves, and could be targeted repeatedly, particularly after the land had been ploughed.

Police say some thieves have formed loosely-connected networks to trade information, often in online forums, about new and vulnerable sites. Ch Insp Mark Harrison, from Kent Police, said farmers had been threatened after confronting groups of men trespassing on their land at night.

Sir Barry Cunliffe, English Heritage chairman, called for better guidance for police on the impact of nighthawking and a national database to detail the extent of the problem.

He said nighthawkers were "thieves of valuable archaeological knowledge that belongs to us all".

"Even in the case when the finds are retrieved, the context of how and where exactly the finds were found has been lost, significantly diminishing their historical value," he said.

"In the cases of internationally important material, the loss of the unique evidence that these objects provide on our common history and origins is especially poignant."

The report also recommended that antiquities sellers should be forced by law to prove the provenance of their goods and called on auction websites to monitor more closely items put up for sale more.

arr yes, thanks Neil,  i daughter just sent it to me, i was going to post it,
Alan

this was on bbc's lunchtime news today......of course it was sensationalised to open the item..".our heritage being stolen out of the ground by unscrupulous metal detectorists called nighthawks !"...but then they spoke to 2 genuine detectorists who explained how finds are recorded with the PAS and how we only detect on land where we have permission off the landowner etc......then a representative of english heritage explained that although there are nighthawks stealing and selling  these items...they are not worth much in monetary terms but ARE in historic terms....he also backed genuine detectorists and praised them for recording finds with the PAS....i thought it was a balanced report that did not blacken the name of real detectorists..........byron

arrrrr  Thas good then Byron. i'd better keep my moblie on in case they come after me again
 i went out a year ago and forgot to switch my moblie on, Mellanie dole bbc wales was after me to go down to the studios to apear for an interview that tea time,
 i missed it, doh,   to late when i got back and checked my house phone.
Alan

I was watching Time Team offshoot the other day, I fancy I had seen it before as I recognised the faces of the two detectoists.

They had recovered hundreds of items and sold them without even reporting them and had the aurdacity to bring in the arkies to the alleged field they supposed to have found a hoard.
I have my suspicions that the field they pointed out was not the actual location. Geophys came in and found ancient 'footprints' of something or other and then they dug it up they came up with precisely nothing,not even a piece of pottery.

So much for the 'experts' if it was truly the field. But a for nighthawks, which apparently these two confessed to detecting at night, I think all of them are scum and should be prosecuted with all the powers available before they ruin the hobby..

here here Charles,  their giving the rest of us a bad name, tarnishing us all with the same brush for those you don't know better,   doing a lot of damage to us, and supplying ammo for the arquies
one done it last year in newport, got caught by the farmer,  but got away with it when he  cried and promished to share the procedes from the hoard  with him   o.m.g,  if the farmer only new hey,
Alan

yeah,  i saw that time team prog a few months back too,

I agree entirely.  I have been refused permission for several farms because of nighthawks and trespassers who detect on land without the landowners consent and give detectorists a bad name; and what’s worse, in my opinion, is that most of the trespassers have no appreciation of the past or our history, and sell all their finds! In it for the money basically, just like the two on time team.

i do agree with wat you are all saying the thing is at this time GB is the most lenient country at the mo for metal detecting if this keep on it willnot stay like that how do they find things in the dark i cant find things in the light :D some thing got to be done about it before its to late (phil)

The thing that worries me is if they ban detecting.What do you do then stop?Or do you end up breaking the law doing something you enjoy?

Makes me wonder, back about a year or so ago on a forum someone asked if we would be interested in leaving all our personal information on a website so that if an archeological dig was done in the local area then we might get contacted to come along and metal detect.

I subscribed to this website and never heard anymore, I now wonder if this was the reason or is it just to monitor the names & addresses of everyone who metal detects?

Your thoughts please

Burp