A REVELLER told how two thieves bashed him with flowers during a distraction theft then made off with £200.

Matthew Baillie, 20, was hassled by a pair of female crooks as he went to lift taxi money from an ATM machine outside rock bar Firewater.

He said the two women, posing as flower sellers, tried to smack him with the blooms before they began “tapping and shoving” him on March 28.

Two days later the admin worker checked his bank account and found £200 had been swiped.

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Matthew, from Mount Vernon, said: “I was out for a night out with my friends and I went to the cash machine outside Firewater to get money for a taxi home.

“As I finished typing my pin in, two ladies came up to me and got really close to me.

“They were both carrying flowers and they kept saying ‘please, please’ so I told them to back off.

“I’d been quite nice about it but they started trying to put the flowers near my face.

“They started tapping and shoving me and obviously when I was distracted that’s when they took the money.”

Matthew admits he’d only been distracted for a few seconds but the thieves had managed to flee with his cash.

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He contacted cops on March 30 after discovering £200 had vanished from his account.

A Police Scotland spokeswoman said: “Around 9.55pm on March 28, police received a report of a theft from a man outside at an ATM in Sauchiehall Street, Glasgow. Enquiries are ongoing.”

A number of victims came forward last week following a spate of cash machine thefts in Glasgow City Centre.

Two females say they were robbed by a woman as they lifted cash from ATM machines.

On the same day that Matthew was targeted, another woman had to fight off a would-be-thief who tried to nick £200 from her as she lifted cash on Sauchiehall Street.

Matthew said: “I was completely gutted by it to be honest but it happened so quickly.

“I just want to warn folk to be careful because it’s happening to too many people now.”

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