Discussions are coming to a close over whether Kenilworth is to have another cash machine.
Residents and other concerned parties have four days left to comment on Bankmachine Ltd's application to install a 24-hour machine at the Malthurst Jet filling station in Warwick Road.
Neighbours have already voiced concerns, including Paul Stach
unski, who lives next door.
He said: "The garage currently has signs that advertise the petrol station and powerful halogen floodlights - to add to those lights would infringe upon my privacy. Twenty-four hour use of the site would also cause further disruption. Noise levels when the garage is closed often disrupt my sleep - an ATM at the garage would only increase the level of noise traffic."
The matter was due to be discussed at a Kenilworth town council meeting yesterday (Thursday) at the time the Weekly News was going to press. Speaking before the meeting, member of both Warwick District and Kenilworth town councils, Coun John Hatfield (Con, Kenilworth St Johns) said: "I think that any use of those sorts of things is purely in the eye of the beholder. It's not a bad thing to have a cash machine there, but there are cash machines at the top of the town and that ought to be sufficient.
"I believe that credit card fraud has happened in filling stations in Kenilworth - whose fault it is I don't know. If people are sensible they would take cash to a filling station but I suppose everyone has to be given the choice to do what they want."
In November last year, users of the Kenilworth Shell garage - which is also in Warwick Road - had money withdrawn in Malaysia, in a scam in which card scanners at tills were interfered with and made to collect numbers.
More recently, this summer fraudsters in Australia targeted scores of people who all said they had used the cash machine at the Clarendon Avenue Shell garage in Leamington. The same filling station had been investigated in 2006 after 36 people fell victim to a credit card scam.
In most such frauds, criminals attach a ‘skimming’ device to card readers or cash machines in garages. They then create a ‘clone’ card and use it in a country without a chip and PIN system, or employ accomplices to watch the customer entering their PIN.
When asked if there would be any plans to install extra security devices, a Malthurst spokesman said: "Very often cameras are pointed at the cash machine when one is installed. They are usually positioned near a night-pay window, which will always have a camera pointed towards it. We would not normally install extra security devices unless stipulated by the planning conditions."
