A Romanian gang is accused of stealing more than £40,000 from pensioners using a cash machine distraction scam at Halifax and Lloyds Bank branches. Police say CCTV shows three men working together: one drops a banknote to distract a victim, another taps the victim on the shoulder to ask if money was dropped, and a third swaps the victim’s bank card for a similar-looking one before the group flees.

The reports describe targets as vulnerable pensioners and say the victims were unaware they were being targeted after withdrawing their own cards from the machines. Across the outlets, the emphasis stays on the method captured on CCTV and the use of card-swapping following a distraction tactic. The sum stolen and the bank locations are consistent, framing the incident as a coordinated criminal operation directed at older people in retail banking settings.

While the core account aligns, each publication’s presentation differs slightly. Metro and the Manchester Evening News stress the “cruel” and coordinated nature of the scam, while the Daily Mail focuses on the “crime spree” framing, though the factual elements in the provided summaries remain the same.