RAIDERS who stole a cash machine from a public house later discovered it contained - absolutely nothing.

John Leeming, landlord of the Red Lion pub at Bridge, near Canterbury, said the machine was emptied on a nightly basis and because the theft occurred at 5am in the morning, the only thing the thieves got away with was an empty and inoperable ATM machine.

He said that the door to the empty machine was always left open, quite clearly indicating an empty vault.

A gang, thought to be four men wearing balaclavas or hats, smashed the largest of the front windows to the pub, tied a towrope round the machine and dragged it through the window behind their Land Rover Discovery in the early hours of last Sunday morning.

The vehicle was found abandoned in a field in Mystole, Chartham, near Canterbury, at 9.30am the same morning and the cash machine was found on Monday at 9.15am by a Forestry Commission worker at Denge Wood, Penny Pot Lane, Waltham.

The damage to the 15th century pub building amounted to a scratch on the floor and a broken wall panel.

The type of cash machine stolen costs between £5,000 and £10,000 and is the property of the lease-holding brewery Punch Taverns.

PC Nigel Saunders said: "We are particularly keen to hear from anyone at the two locations where the Land Rover and the cash machine were abandoned."

Anyone with information about the theft or the disposal of the car or ATM machine is asked to contact PC Saunders on 01227 762055 or Crimestoppers, free and confidentially, on 0800 555 111.