ATM moles’ £6,000 haul

A GANG of thieves who spent six months digging a 100ft tunnel under a car park to raid a shop’s cash machine may have only escaped with around £6,000, it emerged yesterday.

The theft happened earlier this month at a cash machine at a Blockbuster store in a Manchester shopping precinct but was only discovered when the cash dispenser was being routinely refilled.

Sources said this was the second time the criminals, dubbed the “mole gang”, had tried to dig their way to the cash machine, after an identical plot was foiled in 2007.

The thieves dug the tunnel from a railway embankment at the rear of the shop. It went under a car park and beneath the foundations of the store.

The passageway was around 100ft in length and around 4ft tall and fitted with lighting and roof supports.

They drilled tiny holes from their tunnel into the floor of the store, into which they inserted telescopic cameras to see how far along they were.

Then they drilled through more than 15in of concrete to steal cash from the ATM.