"History" (artefacts) Found in Merthyr Tydfil

Mr Thomas appears to have been
painting the site in this photo from
Merthyr Tydfil Leisure Trust

Now there is going to be a "community archaeology project" on a site dug by a Mertyr Tydfil man (Sophie Gidley, 'Bouncer unearths possible Roman town in Merthyr Tydfil', BBC News 27 December 2015):

Bouncer and local historian Anthony Thomas, 45, has found a series of crop marks believed to date back to Roman times. [...]  Mr Thomas [has found] coins, pottery, broaches [sic], tiles, beads, cut wood and lead weights [...] I've found more than 100 pieces of Roman artefacts from the field," he said. "I always thought, there's got to be a Roman building, so I kept on going. "I started digging holes up there to see what more I could find, and about 3ft (0.9m) down I found the tops of walls which I believe are part of a Roman town. "I'm really excited by it all."

Note that "local historian" bit. Is there any embarrassment in the finder revealing what his hobby is? Here he is on the 'Detecting Wales' forum ('Hi from Merthyr Tydfil', January 23, 2011 original orthography):

Hi all Just come across this wicked forum and website. My name is Anthony Thomas and i live in Merthyr Tydfil and have been a fan of metal detecting since i was a kid and have been doing it now in all about 2-3 year's. Iv even just started my own website to hopefully meet and see what others have found in the merthyr area. [...]  look forward to meeting u all.

These are some of Mr Thomas' three-feet deep "excavations".

"Local historian"? Gopher more like.

Isn't this type of destruction the PAS is there to prevent? How come, after eighteen years of expensive public 'outreach', the BBC is presenting this type of thing as a legitimate piece of research?