Drones used to catch ‘nighthawkers’ stealing Norfolk’s hidden treasures

Police patrols involving drones with thermal imaging cameras have been stepped up at locations where so-called ‘nighthawking’, or illegal metal detecting under the cover of darkness, has been reported.

Police say its drones help patrol large areas and pinpoint and film people using thermal image cmeras (Image: Norfolk Constabulary)

Damage has seen the eye in the sky patrols undertaken at St Benet’’s Abbey and Caistor St Edmunds in an effort to catch people illegally digging for archaeological artefacts.

PC Chris Holmes, who is overseeing the heritage crime crackdown, said the scale of thefts is a hard crime to quantify due to the secretive nature of illegal metal detectorists.

Intelligence, tip offs from the metal detecting community and reports from wardens and locals are helping to target locations.

PC Chris Holmes talks with wardens at St Benet's Abbey (Image: Norfolk Constabulary)

“Nighthawking is very bad in Norfolk but the full extent is an unknown quantity because it doesn’t get reported most of the time,” said PC Holmes, who admits to being an avid amateur historian himself.

“It tends to be found out at a later date that it has happened. Often wardens who work on the archaeological sites will find holes dug, that will get fed back to us and we can do patrols.”

Both St Benet’s Abbey and Caistor St Edmunds Roman town are scheduled monuments where metal detecting is banned.

St Benet's Abbey is a scheduled monuments where metal detecting is banned (Image: Copypright Mike Page, All Rights Reserved Before any use is made of this picture, including dispaly, publication, broadcast,...)

The Norfolk Archaeological Trust (NAT), which owns or manages these and eight other archaeological sites, said it has seen a “huge increase in crime” including metal detecting and criminal damage.

“Any activities which damage the scheduled monument, in any way, are forbidden, and any works require written permission – known as scheduled monument consent,” it said.

“NAT takes its responsibility to look after these sites very seriously, and we work in partnership with the Norfolk Constabulary, and Historic England to ensure that they are here for future generations to discover and enjoy.”

Damage at St Benet's Abbey caused by metal detectorists digging for buried artifacts (Image: Norfolk Constabulary)

Drones were ideal pinpointing people on the ground at night using thermal cameras, said PC Holmes.

A recent operation saw police stake out one location using multiple drones backed by teams and dog units after intelligence suggested a gang of ‘nighthawkers’ planned to visit.

He said: “Drone patrols are a good way of covering all that land and potentially catching people, but also getting a message there that we can and will be targeting ‘nighthawking’ which we haven’t done to this extent before.”

Police poster appealing for information about illegal metal detecting (Image: Norfolk Constabulary)