A ROGUE treasure hunter who has been digging up the town leaving its playing fields laden with hundreds of holes has now become Thornbury’s most wanted.

For the past two months a vandal has been scouring the Mundy Playing Fields, the grounds at the Chantry community centre and at Castle School’s sixth form centre with a metal detector, unearthing his finds and often not even bothering to cover up afterwards.

With hundreds of holes discovered and no sign of the nightly digs abating, town leaders are now determined to identify the culprit and bring him or her to justice.

Town clerk Judith Payne told the Gazette: "We’ve been plagued by somebody using metal detection equipment and they have been digging holes at the Mundy Playing Fields, at the Castle School sixth form and at the Chantry. If we ever find who it is we will bring action for criminal damage.

"Somebody could trip on one of the holes. It’s dangerous. We don’t want people to think they can get away with it."

Despite going through CCTV footage of the targeted areas, the town council is none the wiser as to the identity of the treasure hunter.

Mundy Playing Fields groundsman Paul Le Riche said the vandal was obviously extremely cautious and always kept a safe distance.

"They are being careful not to get caught," Mr Le Riche said. "There are holes everywhere especially by the play area. You are walking along the field and suddenly you’ve gone over on your ankle.

"What they are doing is digging down and chucking soil back on top. Sometimes they are not even doing that. They never fill the holes on the pitches or at the sixth form. That’s dangerous."

Mr Le Riche said he believed the most of the digging was done in the early morning.

"It happens most nights. I reckon they do it in the early hours of the morning. There are hundreds of holes. It’s just a nuisance."

And everybody in the community could end up shouldering the cost of these nightly digs.

Cllr Maggie Tyrrell told the Gazette: "There has been quite a bit of damage done. It costs money to put the damage right and it’s the council that has to pay for it and the people of Thornbury in the long run."