Last updated 13:28, Thursday, 03 July 2008

THE mysterious disappearance of thousands of pounds from the bank accounts of Tynedale people has been traced to a South Tyne filling station.

Customers who filled their tanks at Henshaw Garage at Bardon Mill in recent weeks, and paid by debit or credit card, found the cash was being removed from their account twice over.

A police investigation revealed that as well as going to the garage, the cash was also being credited to a furniture store in London!

A police spokesman stressed: “There is absolutely no suggestion of any wrongdoing on the part of the garage proprietors, Peter and Barry Jameson; it was a case of human error by the cash handling company.

“It had given the same merchant identification number to both Henshaw Garage and the furniture store.”

The case had been baffling detectives for some time, and at one point it was being suggested that the “hole in the wall” at the Tesco store in Hexham had been fitted with an illegal card cloning device.

However, complaints then came in about unexplained transactions from people who had never used the Tesco cashpoint.

Eventually, the spotlight then fell on the garage, where the banking boob came to light.

Hexham CID's DC Carl Urwin said this week: “A considerable sum of money was involved, but people should be able to get it back again.

“Anyone who feels money has been wrongly taken from their account should take the matter up with their bank or building society, rather than Henshaw Garage.

“The garage is entirely innocent in this matter.”

The problem was corrected as soon as it was discovered.