Police Scotland officers are carrying out extensive enquiries in the Langholm area following a break-in to the Royal Bank of Scotland in the High Street in the town in the early hours of Friday 11 November 2016. At around 0140 hours reports were received by police that the sound of an explosion had been heard in the area of the Royal Bank of Scotland. On attendance officers found that the bank’s security had been overcome and that the ATM cash machine had been violated. Enquiries were commenced and a short time later a green coloured Land Rover was found burning on the B6318 road about three miles south of Skippers Bridge, Langholm. The fire was extinguished by the Fire and Rescue Service.
Detective Inspector Scott Young said “at this stage we are carrying out a number of enquiries into this crime and we are asking for the help of the public on a number of fronts. We are keen to hear from anyone who may have seen what took place at the bank at around 0140 hours this morning. We have reports of a green coloured Landrover R 445 YJC being at the scene of this crime and then driving off south shortly afterwards. We are of course interested in the movements of this Landrover, both prior to the crime and after it happened. This may well be the same Landrover which was found burning south of the town a short time later. We are also keen to hear from anyone in the town who may have seen any suspicious activity in or around the area of the bank over the past days or even weeks.
Chief Inspector Stephen Stiff, Operational Commander for the area said “this is a very rare crime for our area and totally out of character for the Langholm area. We have officers in the Langholm area carrying out door to door enquiries and speaking with the public to offer reassurance. The High Street, which forms part of the main A7 road is still closed and will remain so until we have carried out our full scenes of crime examination. Diversions are in place at this time to allow traffic to bypass Langholm and we are aware that this will cause some level of disruption however we are keen to ensure that every opportunity is maximised in order to gather anything of evidential value which might help us in tracing those responsible for this crime. We will ensure that we reopen the road as quickly as possible to allow local communities to get back to their normal business but in the meantime I would ask for understanding and patience as the forensic examination gets underway.”
