By Connor Stringer
A FAMOUS metal detector who has spent the last 39 years searching the beaches of Britain to find and return lost property has turned his attention to the golden sands of Bournemouth.
Malachi, a Scottish born pensioner, quit ordinary life in 1978 to pursue his passion for metal detecting across Britain’s beaches and historic land.
Since then, Malachi has scoured thousands of locations across Britain finding thousands of objects ranging from bullet casings to Roman coins.
However, unlike most treasure hunters, Malachi refuses to keep any of the jewellery he finds.
He said: “I never sell them because It’s not mine to keep. I let the police know and I let the council know if I have found anything.”
Malachi is one of the few treasure hunters that abide by the Treasure Act 1996 which was introduced in 1996, 18 years after Malachi started his quest for gold.
The Treasure Act obliges finders of objects which constitute a legally defined term of treasure to report their find to their local coroner within 14 days.
Now Malachi has turned his attention to cleaning up Bournemouth’s seven miles of golden sand of lost property. He spends “all day” searching the coast, which sees a jaw-dropping 3.5 million visitors each year in peak summer months.
A FOI report obtained by the Rock states that since September 2010, a total of 1650 objects have been reported as ‘lost’ to the Bournemouth Seafront Offices. That’s an average of 290 items a year.
Malachi is also the star of his own YouTube channel, ‘Minelab Mal’, with over 1.4 million views and over five thousand subscribers to which he posts all of his findings which helps owners relocate their belongings.