A gang of masked men used a forklift to smash through the wall of a village bank to steal a cash machine.

Witnesses say that when the three men wearing balaclavas had broken through the wall of the North Cave bank, they started wrapping straps around the cash machine to pull it free from the HSBC bank, Pocklington Post reported.

The men fled in a white loader van and a blue BMW four-door sedan car but left the cash machine on the pavement outside the bank.

A witness said that "it looked like a real professional job". "You have to have planned something like that to get a piece of plant machinery like that down there."

Anyone with information is asked to contact Humberside Police on +44 845 60 60 222 and quote crime reference number CJ/1762364/2010.

Separately, a pallet jack and a forklift were used in four thefts of automated teller machines in California.
The office of District Attorney Tony Rackauckas in Orange County, California has charged four men.

Prosecutors in the Santa Ana office say the early morning crimes involving bank cash dispensers occurred from 30 May 2009 to 1 May 2010 in the communities of Yorba Linda, Fullerton and Aliso Viejo and may have yielded more than USD400,000 in cash and property damages.

Typically, the perpetrators would use materials handling equipment to rip a machine from its foundation or structure and load the unit into a stolen truck. Surveillance cameras captured the action in certain cases.

Charges were filed against Richard Dwayne Bockman, 43, of Yucca Valley; Curtis Edward Weber, 38, of Anaheim; Ricky Joe Coffey, 44, of Orange; and Charles Roberts, 41 of Riverside.

Prosecutors say that convictions could result in prison sentences possibly ranging from 15 to 31 years.