P olice have issued a warning after a spate of “high value fraud cases” in the area recently – including the theft of £17,000 from a Hale Barns resident using an elaborate mailbox scam.
Officers said that identity documents belonging to the victim were taken from their mailbox, which was attached to an external wall.
These details were then used to order credit cards in the victim’s name that were later themselves intercepted and stolen from the victim’s mail box, with the victim completely unaware they had even been ordered.
CCTV footage has since indicated that a team, described as Asian males, had “adapted” the mailbox to allow them to intercept mail.
The offenders can be seen removing what appears to be a volume of bubble wrap from the mailbox that they are understood to have stuffed inside previously, preventing items of mail from dropping to the bottom of the box and allowing the offenders to remove the mail.
They would then return some days later to repeat the process and intercept the PIN.
Police said that a similar crime, reported in 2016 and also in Hale Barns, eventually amounted to a fraud of over £200,000.
Anyone with any information about this crime should report to 101 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111.
