Raiders rip out cash machine

The ram-raid happened at around 3.45am when the thieves are thought to have smashed a car through the front of the station to reach the cash machine, which was hauled outside and left on the road.

People living nearby heard the loud smashing of broken glass and raised the alarm. Within minutes, police were on the scene and the area around the machine was cordoned off to allow forensics officers to check for evidence and fingerprints among the debris.

Duty station manager Tanya Swindell said the station was locked at the time and one member of night staff was on duty.

Investigating officer, Det Con Andy Jackman, of British Transport Police, said the station worker had seen nothing, but several eye-witnesses had come forward with useful information.

He said: "An attempt was made to steal the cashpoint machine at approximately 3.45am by three or four individuals dressed in dark clothing.

"The machine was pulled out of the railway station onto the road where the taxi rank is, but for reasons unknown at this stage the individuals de-camped the scene without taking any money.

"A Jeep Cherokee used in the raid was later found abandoned in Ferry Road, Littlehampton and had been stolen from the Brighton area about 24 hours earlier.

"It is thought that they smashed through the front of the station with the Jeep and then tried to haul the machine out."

The raid is the latest in a series of cash machine thefts across the south in the past 18 months. In September, a stolen JCB digger was used to rip a cash machine from the wall of a bank at Steyning, and four months earlier, a cash machine was stolen in a ram-raid on a Co-op store at Shoreham.

Anyone with any information about yesterday's raid should call Det Con Jackman, in confidence, on 01273 228141 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.

A spokeswoman for Cardpoint, the company responsible for the Moneybox cash machine, said the company had no comment to make and would not confirm how much money was likely to have been in the machine at the time.

Rail services were unaffected by the incident but yesterday travellers using the station had to use a side entrance and exit while work was carried out to clear away broken glass and board up windows.