Metal detectors trespassing

[Rookie]

Do people get a problem with metal detectorists going on land without permission and how do you deal with them ?

Had an incident this morning. Father tackled 4 detectorist's in our field and one threatened him with spade and became abusive. Went along to help and as they were leaving they made lots of threats like we know were you live, will pollute our fishing lake, come at night night hawking anyway and if you call police we will say you threatened us with a gun (which we didnt! but 4 witnesses against 2). Anyway, as they left we rang details through to police and luckily they pulled the van up 15 mins later. Asked if we wanted to take matter further but we didnt want to escalate problem and hope that a warning and incident being recorded will act as a deterant to them.

 

[buffalo_soldier]

Don't get that but if we leave a gate open you can almost guarantee that someone on a horse will "just pop in for a look".

 

[Exfarmer]

Do people get a problem with metal detectorists going on land without permission and how do you deal with them ?

Had an incident this morning. Father tackled 4 detectorist's in our field and one threatened him with spade and became abusive. Went along to help and as they were leaving they made lots of threats like we know were you live, will pollute our fishing lake, come at night night hawking anyway and if you call police we will say you threatened us with a gun (which we didnt! but 4 witnesses against 2). Anyway, as they left we rang details through to police and luckily they pulled the van up 15 mins later. Asked if we wanted to take matter further but we didnt want to escalate problem and hope that a warning and incident being recorded will act as a deterant to them.

That is very sad, I am amazed. The police even bothered
There is little you can do as they are just trespassing, and you can only politely ask them to leave.
If they get aggressive using a phone to record the proceedings is the. Way to go , but may inflame the situation

 

[Old Bull]

We had huge problems on some land we had in Wakefield. Some depressions in the field had been filled with household ashes from the bins about 100 years ago and then soiled over. Local bottle diggers walk over land looking for evidence of old bottles and following internet exposure we had diggers from all over the country digging up our crop. One Sunday morning there were over 50 men some of whom threatened me. A call to the police was useless being told it was a civil matter as it was on private land. This continued over several years with us totally helpless to stop it. The first year it happened part of it was in set aside and so I informed the RPA of a third party destroying the green cover. There was no sympathy there either I was told I had to measure all the holes and remove it from my claim thus costing us the corresponding arable subsidy too. The mess they made left the field looking like a WW2 bomb site. The matter only came to a conclusion when these people realised they had exhausted all the bottles. We have been told that some of the bottles that have been found were worth hundreds of pounds but it cost us a fortune.

 

[Old Bull]

Just to add we were given notice on the land as our landlord had sold it for building, and our tenancy finished in February of this year. Just been on Youtube and it seems that the bottle diggers have found another part of the field that hasn't been excavated, as the latest film is in June 2013. The link is

or if that doesn't work put in bottle diggers Wakefield in the search term. Imagine what it is like to see your crop disappearing under that !!

 

[lim x]

CRIKEY...think its time to get the muckspreader on

 

[JCMaloney]

Do people get a problem with metal detectorists going on land without permission and how do you deal with them ?

Had an incident this morning. Father tackled 4 detectorist's in our field and one threatened him with spade and became abusive. Went along to help and as they were leaving they made lots of threats like we know were you live, will pollute our fishing lake, come at night night hawking anyway and if you call police we will say you threatened us with a gun (which we didnt! but 4 witnesses against 2). Anyway, as they left we rang details through to police and luckily they pulled the van up 15 mins later. Asked if we wanted to take matter further but we didnt want to escalate problem and hope that a warning and incident being recorded will act as a deterant to them.

Personally I would like them shot. However that isn`t allowed.

The majority play by the rules but, as with any hobby, the minority ruin it for many. Whenever something turns up (Staffs hoard etc) there is a surge of "get rich quick" types thinking they can go where ever they like with no interest in history or sharing what they find with the landowners.
The police tend to view it as a "nuisance" crime except in some counties where it is a more serious criminal issue (Lincs,Norfolk etc) with targeted attacks on Scheduled Ancient Monuments etc.

If you would like the vehicle details circulated amongst the Midlands detecting community we will happily keep an eye open and ring it in and get the thieves off the land..... feel free to mail info to [email protected]

 

[JCMaloney]

You can also contact Mark Harrison at English Heritage to escalate it.
http://www.english-heritage.org.uk/about/news/643873/

Legitimate detectorists that are members of the National Council for Metal Detecting (NCMD) are subscribers to the Alliance to Reduce Crime against Heritage (ARCH) that ranges from what you suffered to damage to standing building etc.

Sorry for the rant.....makes me flipping livid.

 

[Andy26]

That is very sad, I am amazed. The police even bothered
There is little you can do as they are just trespassing, and you can only politely ask them to leave.
If they get aggressive using a phone to record the proceedings is the. Way to go , but may inflame the situation

No its a criminal matter, suspicion of going equipped to steal.

For example: http://www.eadt.co.uk/news/suffolk_nighthawker_warning_as_two_men_arrested_1_2173319

Google produces lots more.

I've had several illegal dectorists in the last few years. I now have no-one with permission to detects, this makes it easy for neighbours to let me know if they see anyone where as before they would have to work out if it was the chap who had permission.

 

[Irish Bob]

They don't sound like the usual metal detector enthusiasts. I would suggest they are doing it to make money and there is a reason they were in that field. Is there anything there which they might be looking for or cause such interest.

Rules of dealing with tresspassers:

1 do not take a gun or any kind of other weapon

2 if possible do not do it alone

3 be polite but firm

4 any answering back, rudeness phone the police. do not say you are going to do it as a threat, just do it and ask for the police to attend immediately as you believe a crime is going to be / has been committed, breach of the peace etc.

5 do not submit to threats, we know where you live etc. This sort of threat makes police involvement imperative, you need the police to get their details.

6 photograph and record details of any vehicle, and them if possible.

 

[JCMaloney]

Andy26 has summed up the consequence of the actions of selfish,ignorant thieves. One (rightfully) unhappy farmer who is more likely to tell his friends of his bad experience. When I was in retail my old boss said "A happy customer tells no-one,an unhappy one tells everyone".

There also appears,as with many crimes, to be little deterrent to these people but thats a whole different thread.

Its almost a valid argument of going back to the old licencing system but even that wouldn`t deter those who are already prepared to break the law...they are hardly likely to get a licence!

I`ll stick with having them shot...... or birched.

 

[MrNoo]

We have a few from time to time, you approach them and ask what they`re up to only to be told they have permission to detect from the farmer, I ask them who the farmer is, they tend to look a bit sheepish and come out with some bullsh*t. Had the same mob a couple of times on the trot, after a particularly bad day I stumbled upon them in one of the fields, I told them if I see them again I`d set fire to their van, not seen them since. I gather a lot is now done at night.

 

[Yale]

Find their car,let the tyres down.

 

[Andy26]

We have a few from time to time, you approach them and ask what they`re up to only to be told they have permission to detect from the farmer, I ask them who the farmer is, they tend to look a bit sheepish and come out with some bullsh*t.

I had this with one of the aforementioned.

He told me he had permission from 'Mr Smith' (neighbouring farmer, name changed ) and thought this was Mr Smiths' field too, I phoned Mr Smith he said he'd given no one permission detect on his land. Evidently the dectorists had read Mr Smiths name from the Farm sign by his entrance.

Be aware of anyone name dropping a neighbouring farmer.

 

[furrowedbrow]

We had huge problems on some land we had in Wakefield. Some depressions in the field had been filled with household ashes from the bins about 100 years ago and then soiled over. Local bottle diggers walk over land looking for evidence of old bottles and following internet exposure we had diggers from all over the country digging up our crop...

As I understand it once damage has occurred or intent can be established it becomes a criminal matter.

http://www.parliament.uk/briefing-papers/SN05116.pdf

1.1 Damage by trespassers

Any damage done by a trespasser while trespassing may amount to the offence of criminal damage. The elements of that offence are set out in section 1 of the Criminal Damage Act 1971:

A person who without lawful excuse destroys or damages any property belonging to another intending to destroy or damage any such property or being reckless as to whether such property would be destroyed or damaged shall be guilty of an offence

Source

 

[JohnGalway]

Find their car,let the tyres down.

Fella from Wales once told me of a poaching problem on an estate. They didn't mind a few going for a fellas own dinner, but this lad was taking all the pheasants he could get his hands on and selling them. This went on a while, and after many warnings, the poacher returned to his vehicle on night to find it burnt out. Terrible what goes on in the countryside altogether!

 

[brynseiri]

You should have absolutely taken it further with the police, they entered your land and threatened you with an offensive weapon- they have got away with it, the one time the police turn out and you let it go- even if they got a caution, that could cause them serious trouble depending on their employment. You would have been better off fighting with them, you'd have had a shovel round the head, but at least one of them would be getting four years for Gbh with intent.

 

[Spartacus]

Fella from Wales once told me of a poaching problem on an estate. They didn't mind a few going for a fellas own dinner, but this lad was taking all the pheasants he could get his hands on and selling them. This went on a while, and after many warnings, the poacher returned to his vehicle on night to find it burnt out. Terrible what goes on in the countryside altogether!

I heard a nice way of doing it is using a bale spike to the radiator, lets them get away from the scene but after driving a few miles the radiator is empty and the car boils, they dont know how it happened or who did it either but get a nice big bill from a garage to fix it!

 

[BSH]

I understand from the legitimate metal detector who has my permission to detect on my land that Pykies are getting into metal detecting and are a big problem near us on some old roman archaeological sites. I had one known local trying it on with me recently. I assumed because he had seen the official chap from the road. Advice from the police is to call them immediately if you are threatened. Our local police are very good at responding in these situations.

 

[brynseiri]

Criminal damage is still criminal damage even if the damage is done to criminals- shyte as it is, having a row with someone on their land isn't classed as crime, unfortunately it's a fact. Then there's what is said, they threaten you, then when questioned, they twist it so threats didn't happen etc. I would be very careful before damaging their vehicle, if you do, then don't let them see you at all, not only from a law point of view, but the fact they come and damage the rad in your tractor, much more expensive. We are unfortunately easy targets in tit for tat arguments.