Cut cashpoint crime? Easy! Just scrap cash machines, says MP
A TOP Tory MP has come with his own foolproof way of combatting cashpoint crime – don’t have cash machines in the first place.
James Cleverly, the party’s deputy chairman, suggested the idea last week after thieves criminals ripped a cash machine out of a wall in his Essex constituency.
But his proposal has been met with a mixture of dis-belief and ridicule from critics. Labour branded it plain ‘daft’.
Mr Cleverly surprised his Facebook followers last week by writing: ‘Ram raid on Halstead Co-op – is it time to scrap cash machines?’
He added: ‘In the age of widespread chip & pin and contactless payment terminals in shops, the days of external cash machines must surely be limited.’
Playing down the need for more police, he warned ‘cash machines like this will always be relatively easy targets for thieves’. He said: ‘We moved from silver and gold coins to paper money to avoid crime, is the next step to move to digital money?’
But Jacqueline Knight, one of the MP’s Facebook followers, branded the idea ‘ridiculous’. She asked: ‘Should we stop having jewellery, iPads and other valuables in our homes too so we don’t get burgled?’
Labour Party chairman Ian Lavery said: ‘Maybe if his Government hadn’t cut so many police, he wouldn’t have to come up with such daft ideas.’