Man tells court that cash machine in Royal Wootton Bassett had been tampered with (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Man tells court that cash machine in Royal Wootton Bassett had been tampered with

1:48pm Tuesday 23rd October 2012 in News By Staff reporter

An unemployed man told a jury how he missed a job interview after trying to use a cash machine which it is said had been tampered with by fraudsters.

Brendan Jenkins was trying to get £10 from the bank so he could get the bus into Swindon as he looked for work, only for the money to never arrive.

And minutes later he saw a man who he believed had a device which had been removed from the hole-in-the-wall with his money attached to it.

Mr Jenkins was giving evidence at the trial of two men who are accused of being involved in stealing cards and cash from the machines.

Mitrut Tei, 34, and Costica Dabica, 30, who live in London but need Romanian interpreters, deny conspiracy to steal.

Mr Jenkins told Swindon Crown Court how he went to Barclays in Royal Wootton Bassett at about 9am on the morning of Tuesday May 1.

After putting his PIN number into the machine and ordering the tenner he said he heard the rollers whirring but nothing came out.

He took his card and went across the road to another bank to get the cash and was at the bus stop when he saw a man he through was acting suspiciously.

"He had his right hand across his chest, it was as if he was holding something," he said.

"As he passed me he seemed to drop something. It was like a ruler with some money stuck to it. I believed that money to be mine."

He said he then followed the man who got into the front passenger seat of a maroon Volvo and phoned the police after seeing it drive away.

Mr Jenkins said he got a fleeting glimpse of the driver and later picked out Dabica as being behind the wheel at an ID parade. He could not pick out the other man he saw.

As a result of the incident he said he was so shaken up he had to cancel his appointment and didn't catch the bus.

The jury heard that the defendants were arrested a couple of days later at Tesco on Ocotal Way, Swindon, where it is alleged another cash machine had been tampered with.

There were four men in a similar vehicle and as well as a sat-nav, officers found pieces of paper with post codes on them.

When they removed the stereo they found what appeared to be replica facias for cash machines as well as a bank card from a man who had it withheld by a machine.

They also found sticky mouse traps, a screwdriver, superglue, tape, and quantities of cash.

Earlier the jury was told there had been reports of devices fitted to cash machines in Old Town, Marlborough, Royal Wootton Bassett and Swindon over a few days in late April and early May.

Tei gave the court an address in Mill Hill, north London, and Dabica of Newham, in the east of the capital, both deny conspiracy to steal.

Tei also denies theft and possession of an item for use in fraud relating to similar alleged incidents in Maidstone, Kent, in 2009.

The case continues.