TEN people were in custody last night after a series of dawn raids by police on the trail of bank robbers.

Nearly 300 officers took part in the raids in County Durham, targeting people who are believed to have stolen up to £500,000 from cash machines over the past two years.

Police from six forces are investigating at least seven attacks on cash machines in banks, shops and post offices across the North of England and southern Scotland. In each incident, a forklift truck was used to rip the cash machine from the wall, said police.

Durham Police Assistant Chief Constable Michael Banks said: "This is a serious and organised crime ring. We are dealing with a criminal network."

Shortly after 6am, officers wearing riot gear raided five houses in Witton Park, near Bishop Auckland, one in nearby Etherley, two in Bishop Auckland, one in the village of Esperley, and two in Durham City.

A planned raid in Cleveland was not carried out.

Last night, ten people were being held for questioning at police stations in Darlington, Bishop Auckland, Spennymoor, Peterlee and Durham City.

Eight were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit burglary. They were two men aged 30 and 26, and two women in their late 20s who were arrested in Witton Park, and two men in their early 20s, a 30-year-old man and a 23-year-old woman, who were arrested in Bishop Auckland.

A 68-year-old woman was arrested in Durham City on suspicion of money laundering. A 19-year-old man was arrested in Witton Park on suspicion of assaulting a police officer.

A police spokeswoman confirmed that all except the 19-year-old man were being questioned regarding seven burglaries, including one in Ingleton, North Yorkshire, in January last year, one in Langley Moor, County Durham, in September last year, and one in Escrick, North Yorkshire, last January.

The other incidents took place in Burton-in-Kendal, Cumbria, Langholm and Moffat, both Dumfries and Galloway, and Ormiston, in East Lothian. They all took place between February and October last year.

The investigation, code-named Operation Ichor, involves officers from County Durham, North Yorkshire, Cumbria, Lancashire, Lothian and Borders and Dumfries and Galloway.

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