Telford-based SmartWater to defend Co-op cashpoints

The Co-op has signed a deal with Telford-based SmartWater is to roll out its crime-fighting forensic liquids at its cash dispensers.

The company is to install its key product, a traceable liquid with a unique 'DNA' which links criminals to crime scenes, at cashpoints at all the Co-op's food stores.

It follows a pilot programme at more than 300 locations in 2016, which the company says helped reduce cashpoint crime by more than 90 per cent.

Chris Whitfield, Co-op’s director of retail and logistics, said: “ATM crime impacts customers and communities – it can also have a disproportionate impact on rural police force areas where cash dispensers are more of a lifeline for residents and the local economy.

"At the forefront of combating ATM crime this proven technology utilises the latest ATM security capabilities and innovations to cut crime, providing a safer and secure way to deliver a key and convenient service in local communities.”

The methods for stealing from cash machines vary in different parts of the country. In London, black box offences are common, which see criminals use a device to connect to the machine's controller, telling it to spit out cash.

In the East Midlands, criminals are increasingly taking the less covert method of plunging through walls with heavy machinery to steal the machines – a method which has also been used to steal from cash points in Shropshire. In March, raiders used a JCB to plough through a wall in Alveley to make off with a cash machine.

SmartWater's product will provide a unique forensic signature at each Co-op cashpoint, increasing the risk of robbers being traced by police.

Anyone trying to break into a cashpoint or tamper with it will be sprayed with a liquid gel. An amount of the gel the size of a speck of dust is enough for the company's forensic investigators at the company's laboratory at Nedge Hill in Telford to analyse and identify the individual liquid, and where it came from.

SmartWater chief executive Phil Cleary said: "This technical development represents a serious upgrade in the security of ATM’s as SmartWater products have helped convict hundreds of criminals world-wide and retains a 100 per cent track record in court.

"Simply, the ATMs protected by SmartWater now represent too high a risk for criminals and the more professional will give them a wide berth."

The move has also been supported by SaferCash, an intelligence sharing group for protecting cash in transit.

It follows SmartWater's project alongside the Metropolitan Police to target burglars in the capital, and the new partnership with the Co-op has been praised by the force.