In Bedfordshire, a reward of up to £10,000 is now available for information about a recent spate of ram raids on cash machines.
Detectives are now linking the spate of raids, where 4×4 vehicles are driven through shops to get at the cash machines inside.
There have been 12 raids in north and mid Bedfordshire. Detectives believe that at least some of these are linked to each other, but others may be being carried out by seperate gangs. Most of these attacks have resulted in large scale damage to the premises, but few are successful in stealing the money from the machine.
This week, a reward of up to £10,000 has been announced by Cardpoint, who are responsible for the cash machine at the Spar in Biggleswade, for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the offenders. DC Sue Miller and DC Tony Pugh of CID, have been investigating this string of attacks.
What they say
"Attacks on cash machines are not just attacks on a faceless piece of machinery. They are highly dangerous to the public – with vehicles being stolen and driven at high speed round the county’s roads – as well as the fact they cause thousands of pounds worth of structural damage to the premises too. Exactly how dangerous they can be was recently highlighted with the attack on the Golden Lion pub, where the landlord and his family were asleep upstairs at the time," said DC Miller. "They could easily have been injured or worse if the building had collapsed under them – or if they had been downstairs at the time when a Land Rover crashed through their pub."
