THIS is a letter about bank scams and a possible chough. I was mug enough to push my HSBC debit card through the cloning device on the Barclays ATM over the Easter weekend, despite the fact that it looked dodgy.

I think this shows the value of higher education.

On reading your front page story I contacted HSBC who assured me that:

1. Their cards can't be cloned.

2. The gang would have made the hit within 12 hours, all banks would have been alerted by Barclays and I would have been informed long ago.

3. Customers are compensated for any fraudulent use of their cards.

4. The gang probably wouldn't be interested in £1.30 anyway.

Colleagues in Swindon said they wouldn't use any ATM that wasn't under CCTV surveillance so this may increase calls for CCTV in Marlborough.

I notice that Cirencester now has signs at the town boundary that say 'Welcome to Cirencester. Now safer with CCTV.'

The butchers near the aforesaid branch of Barclays Bank was selling Gloucester Old Spot hot dogs last

Saturday and I sat down to enjoy one in the sunshine on the bench below St Mary's Churchyard.

I was feeding bits of the bread roll to a mixed gang of jackdaws and rooks when I noticed an especially tame bird among them.

It was very like a chough but with an all-black beak where the upper mandible was long and decadent and curved over the lower, making it

difficult for the bird to pick up the bread, which it had trapped with its foot.

Has anybody else noticed this creature?

PETER MCDADE

Five Stiles Road

Marlborough