POLICE have warned treasure hunters to keep their metal detectors well away from ancient monuments and private land.

The dressing-down comes after five people were arrested for combing an ancient monument site in Coney Hall called Wickham Court Farm and digging up the countryside - known as 'night hawking'.

Wickham Court Farm is one of eight scheduled ancient monuments in the borough where digging up buried artefacts found with a metal detector is illegal without asking English Heritage for permission.

The site between Layhams Road and Addington Road is an important Romano-British settlement and is deemed to be of national importance.

Orpington and District Archaeological Society secretary Brenda Rogers said: “It is a problem.

“If people do find something and sell it on without reporting it we lose all the information about what has been found.

“It has been taken completely out of its context. These people are only interested in making money.”

Five arrests

Earlier this year, Bromley police say they arrested five men at the monument including a 44-year-old from Carshalton, a 34-year-old from Wallington, a 53-year-old from St Paul's Cray; and two men from Lewisham, aged 21 and 35.

All the men had fallen foul of the strict treasure hunting rules in place at Wickham Court Farm and received adult cautions.

A Bromley police spokesman said a number of metal detectors have also been seized at the site, which is owned by Bromley Council. He added: “Convictions for such offences can lead to fines or imprisonment.”

English Heritage say Roman coins and at least one brooch have gone missing from the site, taken "maliciously" by metal detectors kitted out in balaclavas and combats.

English Heritage's inspector of ancient monuments for London, Dr Jane Sidell, said: "Even to stand on these monuments with a metal detector without written permission is illegal.

"There is a lot of money to be made in this.

"It appears to be a victimless crime but it's not. The land is protected by the government for the public."

BROMLEY’S OTHER ANCIENT MONUMENTS

Romano-British Site/Anglo Saxon cemetery - Fordcroft, Poverest Road, Orpington

Iron Age hill fort - Caesar's Camp, Holwood Park, Keston

Earthworks - Camp on Keston Common

Romano British mausoleum - The Temple, Westerham Road, Keston

Romano-British villa - Crofton Road, Orpington

Mediaeval church - St. Botolph's Church, Ruxley

Ice well - High Elms, Farnborough