ATM thefts have become a crime happening with embarrassing regularity for the police and to date, with impunity, writes RTÉ Northern Correspondent vincekearney
The perpetrators appear to be able to strike where and when they want.Hundreds of thousands of pounds have been stolen.
In each case police on both sides of the border have been left with questions they don’t yet appear to be able to answer, despite the PSNI setting up a specialist team of detectives and working closely with An Garda Síochána. "Given the high levels of penetration of paramilitary groups , if they were organisationally involved in this activity we would have a lot more intelligence than we currently have," says one senior source.
The second is believed to be based in Co Antrim. This gang is believed to have been responsible for robberies in the village of Ahoghill and the town of Bushmills. "Those involved are able to steal the diggers, drive them to their target, and then manoeuvre them with a fair degree of precision and speed to remove the cash machine.
If a police patrol tries to stop them they can simply block the road with the digger and the driver can escape in one of the scout cars. There are more than 1,000 ATM locations in Northern Ireland alone, and hundreds more in the border counties.The theft of two cash machines in the same raid in Kells in Co Meath last week further complicated the picture as that was well outside the previous operational sphere. "We are looking at a range of factors to try to assess where these gangs might strike next and to prepare a response for that, but they know we are doing that and they are trying to keep us guessing.
"The bottom line is that these diggers are so powerful they can rip down walls, they could demolish a building. Any bollards placed in front of the machines could quickly be swept aside. "In the Republic we have what’s called the Voluntary Code of Practice, an agreement between all the stakeholders, the Garda, the banks and the IT companies," he says.
The police and retailers have also called on the construction industry to do more to secure diggers on building sites to farms close to ATM locations.
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