Copycats suspected as three more cashpoint machines hit

Three more cashpoint machines were broken into yesterday by raiders exploiting a vulnerable security system.

Three automatic teller machines (ATMs) belonging to the Aeon Credit Company have been hit in two days, with one raid yesterday netting nearly $400,000.

A Po Sang Bank machine was also raided within 30 minutes of the second Aeon robbery early yesterday.

Robbers hit Aeon's Tsz Wan Shan branch machine at 4am on Wednesday and its Sham Shui Po branch ATM at 5.20am yesterday. Thieves also tried to ransack Po Sang Bank's Causeway Bay machine at 5.46am.

All the targets were free-standing ATMs, which security experts say are more vulnerable than the 'hole-in-the-wall' type.

A third Aeon robbery, at Ting On Street in Ngau Tau Kok, in which $22,000 was taken, was reported at 3.20pm yesterday. An initial investigation showed the alarm did not work.

In the Sham Shui Po robbery, thieves entered the lobby of Aeon's Nam Cheong Street branch and levered open the machine to make off with a cash box containing $395,000, police said.