Detectives are not ruling out a link between bank heists in Angus and Aberdeenshire.
A pair of cash machines at a Banchory supermarket were targeted by thieves in the early hours of Wednesday, with more than £10,000 taken after the raiders used a Land Rover Defender to haul the ATMs through the front window of the Morrisons store.
The brazen theft came just hours after Tayside detectives returned to the scene of a six-figure Kirriemuir raid to reveal a £25,000 reward offer for information about the December 20 hit.
It has now emerged that Merseyside detectives who saw a gang of ATM thieves jailed for over 100 years are liaising with colleagues north of the border on the separate inquiries into the two recent incidents.
Kirriemuir’s Royal Bank of Scotland branch was one of two local cash machines targeted by a gang between 3am and 5am on Saturday December 20.
Three or four men travelling in a distinctive high-performance blue BMW M135i were disturbed during an attempt to raid the ATM at the Gardyne Street Co-op in the village of Friockheim.
Around an hour later, they blew off the rear of the Kirrie cash machine in the town’s Bank Street, escaping with a cash haul believed to be £100,000-£150,000.
Empty cash machine cassettes were found by detectives on the A928 near the Angus town and the BMW, bearing the false registration mark YE63 BPZ, was caught on CCTV heading through Dundee on Claverhouse Road before being last seen heading south on the A90 near Longforgan.
The man leading the Tayside inquiry, Detective Sergeant Murray Coull, said the whereabouts of the BMW hatchback could provide a crucial link to solving the crime.
The Banchory raid was similar in nature to the Kirrie theft, with the stolen Land Rover used to rip the cash machines from the premises. Detectives believe another vehicle was also used by that gang to flee the scene.
A spokesperson for Tayside division of Police Scotland said: “We are considering all lines of enquiry and are keeping an open mind regarding any links to other crimes”.
This week also saw a Meryseyside Police appeal for help in tracing two men wanted for conspiracy to cause explosions at cash machines and burglary of banks and shops in 2013.
Adam Murphy, 29, is believed to be in Scotland, while Andrew White, 25, has links to the continent and may be in Spain.
The pair are being sought as part of inquiries which last year saw seven men jailed for the theft of £800,000 from 28 cash machines in banks, post offices and supermarkets across England, with sentences totalling 114 years imposed.