SHOPPERS in Skipton will be asked to leave their thumbprints on the back of cheques and credit card till receipts in a bid to stamp out fraud.

The Thumbs Up scheme is being piloted in Skipton town centre as one of only two shopping centres in North Yorkshire actively trying to find ways to fight credit card fraud.

Already 12 town centre shops have agreed to take part in the pilot and any customer paying by cheque or credit card for goods in these stores will be asked to leave their thumbprints.

The prints will be kept by the retailers and only given to police if the bank discovers that the card or cheque has been used fraudulently.

Skipton's community safety officer PC Wayne Smith said: "It is hoped that the scheme will reduce the loss suffered by retailers and of course the public in general who are unfortunate enough to have their credit cards or cheque book stolen.

"Although it is anticipated that some customers will be reluctant to give their thumbprint, it is felt that this scheme will be as common place in the future as the checking of counterfeit notes is now."

A national retail crime survey discovered that fraud cost the retail sector £53.7 million in 2000, an increase of 68 per cent on 1999.

PC Smith said that fraud in Skipton had not gone up by that amount but nevertheless had still increased and was causing local businessmen concern.

He added that the next couple of months were one of the busiest times for retailers and they could not afford to lose money to fraud.

PC Smith said that each year the costs of credit card fraud were passed on the genuine card owners who had to pay, on average, an additional £100 a year on top of their bills to cover the costs.

Customers who are requested to give a print will not end up with ink on their thumb and clothes as the substance used is a gel which leaves no trace. And the print should take only seconds to complete.

The scheme originated in America more than a decade ago and has been successful there in reducing this type of fraud significantly.

The cost of the pilot scheme will be covered by surplus funds from the Shop Watch Radio scheme.

Those retailers involved in Shop Watch pay an annual fee to cover the cost of the licence and radios, and money left over from that will pay for the ink pads and so on for the Thumbs Up scheme.

The pilot scheme will be launched in Skipton on November 9 and will end on January 12. PC Smith hopes that after that the thumbprint test will become common place.

Any retailer in Craven interested in adopting the scheme should contact PC Smith at Skipton Police Station on 01423 539748.

o A Skipton police initiative to get more bobbies out patrolling the streets has been hailed a success.

The pilot scheme generated so much positive feedback from members of the public that it will now be run indefinitely.

At certain times throughout the day, all on-duty police officers have been sent out onto the streets to keep an eye on certain areas and to meet members of the public.

They have been on patrol in specific visible locations in Skipton, Settle, Ingleton, Cross Hills and Grassington, at crime hot spots, outside schools and on notorious road junctions.

Since the launch of the high-visibility policing scheme the officers have been out at the same times each day.

From now on the times will be changed each week to ensure officers can see their areas at different times and meet different people.