Even the police can be victims of crime. A high-ranking Braintree police officer has first-hand experience of a cash card con.

Insp Joe Wrigley was using the Nationwide Building Society cash machine in Braintree town centre when he found his cash card would not come out of the machine.

He realised straight away that criminals had inserted a device into the cash machine in a bid to steal his card and withdraw money.

Fortunately he knew what to do. He said: "As soon as the card didn't come out, I knew what was going on.

"I pulled the device from the machine and released my card and the cash followed.

"There were several people around so I called the police station and asked them to check the CCTV."

The camera was looking at another cash machine at the time. He added: "I am angry. I'm the victim of attempted theft.

"I could have been a less informed person coming to get money out who would not know what to do and the person who put the device there could have got away with it."

Warnings have given out by police several times following a spate of similar crimes in Witham, Braintree and Halstead.

How it works

The criminals slot cardboard or plastic devices into the machine and stick double-sided tape to the card slot.

A cash card will go in as normal and be read by the machine, but then won't come back out.

The machine will not be able to tell that the card has not been released and the display will continue to ask you to take your card.

Unless the victim is prepared to stand and wait for help or has a mobile phone to call from he will leave the machine unattended.

That is when the thief strikes stealing the card and taking back the device.

Published Wednesday, January 22, 2003

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