Cash machine taken in garage raid

The Kentish Yeoman was targeted for the second time

A cash machine has been stolen from a petrol service station in the fourth ram raid in Kent in five days.

The Texaco garage in Maidstone Road, Staplehurst, was hit in the early hours of Wednesday. Officers are studying CCTV footage, Kent Police said.

They said three men used tools to break into the garage before removing the cash machine and escaping in a burgundy estate car.

It follows raids in Bearsted, Marden and Istead Rise.

Ram raiders targeted the Kentish Yeoman pub on the A28 in Bearsted early on Monday.

At the weekend, raiders smashed into an Alldays supermarket in Marden and a Co-op store in Istead Rise.

Not linked

In each incident the thieves targeted cash machines, although they left empty-handed in the Alldays robbery after causing serious damage to the village store.

The raid on the Kentish Yeoman was the second time the pub had been targeted in 11 months.

All the raids took place in the early hours but police said they were not linking them at this stage. The latest raid happened at about 0400 BST.

A mechanical digger was left at the scene of the Co-op ram raid

Earlier this year, Kent Police set up a task force to investigate the thefts of cash machines in the county and offered a £10,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of offenders.

Det Ch Insp John Biggadike said on Monday that officers were dealing with highly organised criminals.

"Kent Police takes these thefts very seriously, which is why we have put our considerable resources into identifying those responsible," he said.

There have been 24 ram raids or attempted raids in the county since last December, and 33 arrests for related offences, with one man charged in connection with a raid at Cliffe in May.