BAIT diggers targeting a stretch of some of Hampshire's most beautiful coastline are being warned they could face prosecution.

Groups of diggers have been visiting Swanwick Shore - a Site of Special Scientific Interest and a conservation area - at low tide and gouging deep holes in the mud to harvest ragworm and lugworm, it has been claimed.

The Crown owns the stretch of coast but it is leased by boatyard company A H Moody and Son. Company chairman John Moody has launched a crusade to stop the diggers in their tracks, saying the extraction breaches local bylaws.

"They are taking out a hundredweight at a time - it's being done on a commercial basis. It looks like the landscape of the moon at the moment. It's dangerous for people who walk along the beach. We've got to try and stop it.

"Last year they came and parked cars in the public car park. We got the numbers and, through our solicitors, sent letters threatening prosecution.

"This time they are being dropped off and picked up. It's well organised."

Daily Echo sea angling correspondent Chris Clark said the right for an individual to dig for bait was enshrined in the Magna Carta, but commercial extraction required the permission of the land-owner.

He added a bait diggers' code laid down by the National Federation of Anglers said bylaws should be observed, holes filled in and future supplies of worms ensured.

"But commercial diggers don't belong to the NFA. Most of them are unemployed and are in it to make a quick buck."

A spokeswoman for English Nature pledged to investigate the bait diggers: "As far as we are concerned, all commercial bait digging is illegal and is an offence. We will be looking into the matter."

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