POLICE hunting thieves plundering North-East bank accounts have announced a breakthrough.

Detectives say account holders have lost money to a fake cash machine scam, with the latest in Redcar, Hartlepool and Darlington.

Cleveland Police claimed 'a major setback' for the thieves on Tuesday following the recovery of a fake front for a cash machine, including a micro computer, in Guisborough.

There have been several victims in Hartlepool, including one person whose account was emptied. Other cases have been reported in County Durham and in Northumberland.

The banking industry's intelligence service suggests that the gangs harvesting millions from accounts throughout the UK are from eastern Europe.

Cleveland Police recovered electronic equipment from a Guisborough bank - the first to be retrieved in the North-East. It included a mini computer for recording card details.

It had become dislodged in the hands of an inquisitive customer. It is thought watching thieves moved in swiftly to retrieve a micro camera which would also have been attached, to film numbers as they were typed in.

Det Sgt Dawn Naughton of the force's fraud squad, described the thefts trend as worrying. The fake cash machine housings are an exact colour match with the real machine, and precise in the detail of a bank's logo and typeface.

"If you do not know what you are looking for, it is difficult to detect," she said.

"We believe when these machines are in use, the gang operating them keep a close eye on what is going on. They need a micro camera to record Pin numbers and that would be constantly monitored from nearby.

"The sophisticated computer we have retrieved downloads all the card details and literally reveals the customer's banking details.

"The criminals download the information on to a blank card and once they have a Pin number they can raid customer accounts at will. The scale of such frauds nationwide is staggering."

Det Sgt Naughton appealed to anyone finding a false moulding glued over the front of a cash machine not to remove it, as it can be used for forensic and DNA testing.

She also advised people using cash machines to use one hand to shield the other when putting in a Pin number.