Nottingham Secret Garden: Fraudster hunted by police after allegedly putting money on card using bar's payment machine
A sly drinker is thought to have used a pub’s payment machine to put £500 ON his card rather than pay for his drinks.
Staff at a city centre bar called the police after noticing their takings were down. Believing something untoward had happened, they reviewed the CCTV and spotted some suspicious behaviour.
The footage showed a man holding the card machine while appearing to pay for his drinks at the bar, in Trinity Walk. No payment went through, with the individual instead reportedly using the machine to refund himself £500 before leaving.
The incident happened around 5.10pm on 2 August, with the disparity not discovered until later that day.
Police have been investigating the fraud since then and are now able to release two images of someone they’d like to question.
PC Sean Parker said: “A large amount of money went missing during this incident, so we’re determined to get to the bottom of exactly what happened. Having reviewed the CCTV footage and other evidence, we suspect one of the bar’s customers used the card machine to refund themselves the money. That would make this fraud, which is a very serious offence.
“We’re therefore keen to find the person responsible, so as such are now releasing these images of someone we believe could assist our investigation. If they see this appeal, we’d urge them to make themselves known to us, while we’d also ask that anyone who recognises them reports this information to the police.”
It happened at the Nottingham Secret Garden in Trinity Walk.
Information can be reported to Nottinghamshire Police by calling 101, quoting incident 627 of 2 August 2025, or by contacting Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.