TESCO is to fit an anti-skimming device to its cash machine in a Kent town after criminals targeted the supermarket.

An eagle-eyed customer alerted staff after spotting a card-reader device fitted to the cash machine at the Tenterden store.

Staff contacted police, who came to remove it.

The same Tesco store was targeted by fraudsters about the same time last year.

This latest crime has prompted the supermarket chain to hasten its plan to protect its cash machines, and Tenterden’s in particular.

Monica McCormack, a spokesman for Tesco, said: "In July we announced a national rolling programme. About £3million will be spent, up and down our outlets, adding anti-skimming devices to cash machines.

"Tenterden was on the list as a priority but is now a matter of urgency."

Card readers or skimming devices are fitted to ATMs by fraudsters in an attempt to read the details on users’ cash cards.

The devices are often subtle in their appearance, but frequently take the form of an extended lip over the card slot and a pinhole camera in a bar above the keypad.