POST office, bank, building society and betting shop staff in North Somerset are being urged to stay vigilant after a spate of 'sleight of hand' thefts. The scam involves a customer, on their own or as part of a group, asking to get a large amount of cash

POST office, bank, building society and betting shop staff in North Somerset are being urged to stay vigilant after a spate of 'sleight of hand' thefts.The scam involves a customer, on their own or as part of a group, asking to get a large amount of cash changed down into £20 notes, then into £10 and £5 notes. At some point during the transaction the trickster uses sleight of hand to remove some of the notes right under the nose of the member of staff serving them. The member of staff then gives them the full amount back in smaller notes, unaware they are getting less large notes in return.Post offices in Backwell and Yatton have had money stolen and police believe the same offenders have attempted the scam at a Yatton bookmakers. PC Steve Burrough from the crime prevention unit at Weston Police Station said: "We would ask all workers who deal with cash transactions in this way to be extra vigilant when serving customers. "This crime is especially damaging to post office workers, as they have to repay the stolen cash out of their own pay packets."These kind of tricksters need to be stopped and we would ask that anyone who sees anything suspicious like this happening to report it to police on 0845 4567000 or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.