A 56-year-old man had £500 taken from his account in a cash machine scam in Penge High Street.

Jonathan Morris was outside Tesco Express withdrawing money from an ATM when a man approached him on Saturday (February 17) lunchtime.

He told News Shopper: "The guy leaned over and said 'they swallowed my card, they swallowed my card'. I told him to get out of my face."

The man went away before Mr Morris then realised the machine had not returned his card.

He immediately phoned his bank - First Direct - which informed him that £500 had been withdrawn from a machine nearby outside Penge High Street post office.

Mr Morris said: "Obviously I was quite surprised.

"They refunded me and were really helpful. They told me it happens a lot.

"What they do is they put a device in the ATM, which reads the cards numbers and pin. I don't know if the person who distracted me took the device and legged it to the next ATM or whether he sent across the details to someone waiting."

He said the money was withdrawn within five minutes of him phoning the bank's fraud team.

Mr Morris added: "They did not take money from me, it was from the bank. It was a bank robbery in broad daylight in a busy London high street."

Police were contacted about the incident, but said there was insufficient evidence to follow up with an investigation, according to Mr Morris.