Hunt for ATM theft digger drivers
Police in Northern Ireland are facing heightened demands to catch the thieves who have used diggers to steal 11 cash machines in just nine months.
Robbers also tried to rip out another seven ATMs and despite mounting calls for a breakthrough police have been left humiliated and embarrassed by the wave of crime.
The latest raid was on a busy route between the city and the main international airport at Templepatrick, Co Antrim.
Glyn Roberts, chief executive of the Northern Ireland Independent Retail Trade Association, said there had been a string of similar attacks and the gangs were becoming bolder. "There's not a week goes by that this type of robbery isn't taking place and the criminal gangs behind this are getting bolder and cleverer in their approach," he said.
A suspected petrol bomb was discovered in the wreckage after police responded within three and a half minutes. Mr Roberts warned the whole filling station could have been burned to the ground. The side of the Spar shop was ripped out. Residents will now have to use neighbouring towns to obtain cash and holidaymakers heading to the airport will not be able to avail.
Many of the earlier digger thefts have been in the Fermanagh border region with the Republic. Newtownbutler, Co Fermanagh, trader Declan McCabe said: "These guys when they rob these premises are not robbing only the bank, they are robbing the community of an invaluable service."
Ulster Unionist Assembly member Danny Kinahan said it emphasised how police resources were stretched throughout Northern Ireland. "PSNI officers are too thinly stretched and although they responded within three and a half minutes the thieves still managed to get away.
"The PSNI need to have a plan as to how they respond to such incidents - this is the only way these people will be caught."
Nationalist SDLP MLA Thomas Burns said the damage had caused serious inconvenience to local people.
Graham Mott, spokesman for ATM network Link, said they had offered a reward of up to £25,000 for evidence leading to the capture of gangs behind the attacks.
