Cashpoint crime reaching epidemic levels, says report

THE UK is experiencing an “epidemic” of criminal attacks on cash machines, a report warns.

The damage from attacks on cash machines over the last year may have exceeded £150 million, according to calculations from ATM operator Cardtronics.

Rural areas are increasingly at risk, its report found, leaving people living in remote areas struggling to access cash from elsewhere while machines are repaired or replaced.

While less than a third of ATM attacks were carried out in rural areas in 2013, this number has risen to more than two-fifths (42 per cent) in 2018.

More than 40 per cent of attacks in the first half of 2018 were in areas where there was just one bank branch open.