'Time Team' gadget lets investigators dig deeper

The agency said the equipment, similar to the kit used by the Channel 4 programme Time Team, enables investigators to build up a picture of what lies under the ground.

The EA's crime team are using the technology to track waste that has been illegally buried – for example, by people running illegal dumps who have ditched rubbish underground.

The kit, which saves investigators digging up areas with earth-moving equipment, uncovered a large buried waste site in the New Forest National Park on its first outing. The clean-up cost of 500,000 will be passed on to the landowner who buried the waste.

The approach, known as resistive tomography, uses electrodes inserted into the ground at regular intervals to emit an electric current.