Small and independent shops in Bradford are to receive help to install the new fraud-busting chip and PIN technology.

The scheme is being introduced across the district's stores in the run-up to the Christmas shopping frenzy.

Members of the West Yorkshire Chambers of Trade and Commerce will be eligible to apply for schemes to help reduce installation costs.

More than 17,000 cases of fraud and fraudulent crime in West Yorkshire were reported between 2002 and 2003.

Val Summerscales, secretary of West Yorkshire Chambers of Trade and Commerce, which includes Bradford's Chambers of Trade and Commerce said: "Extensive research has proved that the use of chip and PIN is a good thing as the amount of cheque and credit card fraud should be greatly reduced. That type of crime is ultimately paid for by everyone.

"It can be expensive for retailers to install new technology. As we see chip and PIN as the way forward, the West Yorkshire Chambers of Trade and Commerce run schemes for members to help lower the cost of installation and use.

"The schemes are directed particularly at independent businesses who would normally be charged at a higher rate to install the equipment because there is usually no track record of the shop's credit card turnover."

The new payment method hopes to cut credit card and transaction fraud by 80 per cent.

Linen House, Piccadilly, is one of the few independent shops in Bradford to use the technology.

Manager David Metcalfe, who installed the equipment about six months ago, said: "Chip and PIN gives me confidence that somebody isn't going to be putting down a signature that is not their own."

Topshop, on Darley Street in Bradford, has had chip and PIN system since mid-July and store manager Steve Walsh said the new system meant transaction slips with signatures and card details were no longer loose in the till or being dropped on to the floor by customers, leading to better security.

He said: "It is very straightforward, it only takes a couple of minutes to train staff on how to use it."

Among other stores in Bradford where chip and PIN is currently used or is being installed in are: PC World, Homebase, Tesco, Morrisons, H. Samuel, Phones 4 U and Wallis.

A similar PIN-based system has been used in France for ten years and in that time the country has seen an 80 per cent reduction in transaction fraud.