Bank of Ireland ATMs in remote outposts are to be emptied of cash of an evening following a spate of low-tech ram-raiding attacks on machines by thieves dubbed the 'hole-in-the-wall gang'.
Police yesterday thwarted the fourth such raid in about five weeks at a Bank of Ireland branch in Borris, County Carlow. On each occassion the gang have used a mechanical digger or tractor to detach the machines from their mountings.
In the first such assault, a mechanical digger was used to steal an ATM from a Bank of Ireland branch in the port of Rosslare on 19 June. The thieves failed to escape with their haul in each of the other three attempts. In yesterday's attack, the stolen cash dispenser tipped off the back of a trailer as police pursued the gang in a high-speed car chase
Bank of Ireland machines were the target in three of the four attacks. As a short-term measure, the bank says that it will remove the cash from its dispensing machines in high-risk remote branches after closing time.