FARMERS and landowners across Wiltshire are being urged to report any incidents of crop circle damage that they see to the police.

Wiltshire Police said today that with summer well and truly underway they have seen an increase of crop circles appearing across the county.

A spokesperson said: “They might seem harmless but they actually have a huge negative impact on the hardworking landowners and farmers whose crops are damaged. Creating a crop circle is criminal damage and an offence.

“The damage caused means a loss in revenue to the farmer and landowner. They also have to deal with civil trespass issues on their land after a crop circle has been created when members of the public come without permission, to view the circle.

“It has also been known for individuals to pose as part of a charity or as the landowner at the site of crop circles and attempt to take 'donations' from people viewing the crop circle.”

The spokesperson added: “We urge all farmers and landowners if they have has a crop circle on their land to report it to us on 101 so it can be recorded. Often after a crop circle appears, individuals will arrive with a drone to photograph it. Take note of any vehicles, their registration plates, and any individuals and pass this information to the police.”

If a circle is created on your land make sure you tell the Crop Circle Community if you decide to allow/ not allow access to the general public, and if you intend to cut the circle out.

There are three places to do this:

1.http://www.cropcircleaccess.com/

2. http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/anasazi/post2004.html

3. http://temporarytemples.co.uk/

“We also ask the public to help support our rural communities by reporting any suspicious vehicles, behaviour or people in crop fields to police on 101 they may be attempting to create a crop circle and committing criminal damage,” the spokesperson added.

If you can see a crop circle creation in progress, call police on 999.