Shropshire bank theft getaway car found burned out
The getaway vehicle believed to have been used by thieves who ripped a cashpoint from the wall of a Shropshire bank has been found burnt out near Gloucester.
A stolen JCB was used to pull the cash machine from the wall of Lloyds Bank on High Street in Cleobury Mortimer just after 3am on Monday.
The JCB was discovered abandoned nearby and the offenders are thought to have left the scene, travelling in the direction of Clee Hill in a red Land Rover. They may have also been seen on the Tenbury road.
Police said today that they believed the same vehicle had been found burnt out in Hasfield near Gloucester – more than 50 miles away.
Detective Sergeant Mathew Crisp, investigating officer for West Mercia Police, said, after the incident, police were reviewing CCTV footage in a bid to track down the raiders. He also appealed for any witnesses to get in touch with police.
Cleobury Mortimer was only weeks into an initiative to fight burglaries in the town when the incident happened.
Now clerk of Cleobury Mortimer Parish Council Matt Sheehan, one of the driving forces behind the We Don't Buy Crime town-wide initiative with West Mercia Police, has said it just goes to show that rural towns are not immune from such professionally planned crime – and bolstered the case for an upgrade of the town's CCTV system.
Mr Sheehan said the dramatic theft was of a different type to those being targeted by the We Don't Buy Crime scheme, which has now seen 1,200 cutting-edge "SmartWater" property packs handed out to residents in a town-wide initiative.
"It was a professional theft and it was a commercial thing, not houses," he said.
"But it shows just why the parish council crime prevention strategy and the (volunteer-led) crime reduction group are needed.
"It shows how important it is for the parish council to work with residents and the police."
He said it bolstered the case for a CCTV upgrade that was currently being looked at, with parish councillors visiting Bridgnorth and Oswestry recently for guidance.
Cleobury town centre currently has three CCTV cameras monitored by Shropshire Council, but the parish council is in talks to upgrade the coverage.
"We're looking at spending £11,000 to enhance what we've got, whether that's with extra cameras or a better way of doing it," he said.
If anyone has any information that could help the investigation, call West Mercia Police on the non-emergency 101 number, quoting incident reference number 49s of Monday, December 21.
