27/07/2009

ATM Digger Attack Foiled

Just days after an apparently successful raid in Co Wexford, a JCB mechanical digger machine was last night used in an failed robbery attempt in Co Meath.

The thieves again used the mechanical digger in what turned out to be an unsuccessful attempt to remove a bank automated teller machine (ATM) from a wall outside a bank early this morning.

Gardaí at Kells are investigating the raid outside the Ulster Bank in Athboy.

The raiders attempted to remove the machine on Main St shortly before 6am.

The incident was just days after a very similar attack, at the Mace filling station at Bellfield in Enniscorthy, at around 5am last Friday.

However, unlike the Co Wexford raid, this appears to be unsuccessful as both the digger and the ATM were recovered at the scene.

A stolen 4x4 vehicle and trailer, usually used by raiders to escape with the ATM, were also recovered.

Gardaí suspect the men were disturbed and fled in a Golf type car.

As in the previous cases, the bank suffered extensive damage in the raid. There has been a spate of such incidents in recent weeks.

Gardaí in other parts of the country are still searching for raiders who took part in a number of other ATM robberies in the last few months.

One of these incidents was in Co Fermanagh in recent weeks, when a similar method was used to remove the safe that feeds cash to the automated teller machine.

Meanwhile, gardaí are today also investigating an armed robbery at Mercier Street car park near St Stephen’s Green in Dublin.

Three men broke into the car park's cash office at noon and tied up members of staff.

The raiders made off with an undisclosed sum of money in a northern registered black-coloured saloon car, believed to be an Audi A4.

See: Another ATM Ripped From Wall By Robbers

(BMcC/KMcA)

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