Cash machine raiders strike again

CCTV shows a digger used in one of the cash machine ram raids

Ram raiders have got away with a cash machine after using a mechanical digger to smash into a NatWest bank.

The robbery at Borough Green in the early hours of Saturday is the sixth raid on cash machines in Kent in the last three months.

It comes a day after Kent Police offered an "unprecedented" £10,000 reward to catch the gangs responsible.

Officers are investigating whether the latest raid is linked to five others in Maidstone and Gillingham.

We are asking plant hire companies, contractors and building companies to secure their plant more thoroughly Adrian Leppard

It happened at around 0230 GMT in Borough Green High Street.

After being ripped from the wall, the cash machine was loaded into a car and driven away. The JCB was abandoned.

In at least one of the five previous high-value raids a digger was used and the robbery was recorded on CCTV.

The Halifax in Maidstone was attacked on 18 December, three Gillingham banks were ram-raided on 1 February, and cash machines at Sainsbury's in Northfleet were targeted on 19 February.

Window smashed

The thieves drove the digger into the Lloyds and Woolwich banks in Gillingham High Street and stole a cash machine.

The JCB was also used to smash a window at HSBC and was captured on CCTV.

Two men who were arrested over the early morning raids at Gillingham were released on bail.

"We are treating these ram raids very seriously," said Assistant Chief Constable Adrian Leppard.

"Kent Police are talking with the banking industry to explore ways to make it harder for people to commit this type of crime.

"We are also talking locally to plant hire companies, contractors and building companies to ask them to secure their plant more thoroughly."