Three arrested for ATM scam

Three people are to appear in Wellington District Court today after allegedly scamming money from automatic teller machines (ATMs) in the city.

The three, all from Porirua, were picked up by an ATM on Willis Street yesterday, Detective Sergeant Nina Westera said.

They have been charged with theft and attempted theft.

"They've tampered with a machine so that when somebody tries to withdraw cash, it doesn't come out the slot," Ms Westera said.

"Then they wait for them to go away then they remove the money from the slot."

Ms Westera said police believed the three had been taking part in the scam "over the last six months".

It wasn't known how many machines or how much money was involved "but it's fair to say it was probably a spree of offending".

She warned the public if they withdrew money from an ATM but it didn't come out immediately, to get somebody to stay by the machine while bank staff were contacted.

- NZPA