CENTRAL Fife Crime Prevention Panel is to maintain its campaign to encourage the public of the Cowdenbeath-Lochgelly area to protect their bank and debit cards with special defenders.

Wednesday's meeting of the Panel heard that local people continued to find amounts of £30 disappearing from their accounts through criminals using special scanners which means they can obtain cash from a person's account without them being aware of it all.

Tom Kinnaird said that it was something that was getting ever more prominent as criminals used these devices to take small amounts out people's accounts surreptitiously.

He said: "Without using card defenders people are in danger of having money stolen from them any day of the week.

"Not large amounts but these can all add up to a significant amount."

Panel chair, Dave Roy, said that over the past year the Panel had supplied hundreds of card defenders to member of the public and they were committed to making these available at a cost of 50p at any events they had stall at.

He added: "The defenders are small sleeves you pop your cards in and it keeps these safe from prying scanning equipment."