Security at Winchester's car parks is to be tightened after overnight raids on ticket machines in which raiders got away with more than £2,000.

The crime spree began on Monday, at 2.30am, in the Upper Brook Street car park, where more than £778 was taken from a ticket machine

Three hours later, at the multi-storey in Chesil Street, over £1,070 was reported missing after several machines were attacked. A council spokesman confirmed that the closed-circuit television security system failed to record anything.

Only last month, CCTV did not detect a man who used a chainsaw to fell the city's Christmas tree in the High Street pedestrian precinct.

Last on the raiders' list was the Durngate Street car park machine, which was attacked just after 8am. A total of £269 was removed from its coin box.

It is not the first time the city's car park machines have been targeted. Last year, raiders made off with thousands of pounds in a spate of thefts. The last attack was on November 13th, when almost £1,500 was taken after thieves drilled their way into the coin box of the machine at Gladstone Street.

They did the same thing at the nearby St Peter Street, taking £750. A month earlier, £630 was stolen from Gladstone Street. Police also recorded thefts from car parks in July.

Throughout the raids, the council gave assurances that it would review its policy on emptying the machines and tighten security, a process, which it says, takes time. "We are still working with the suppliers of the machines to make them more secure," said a spokesman.

He added that the council was aiming to have a coherent policy across all its car parks, where each was emptied at the same time. The problem was not unique to Hampshire. "No matter what security measures you put in place, if someone's determined enough, they will find a way," he said.

On the issue of CCTV, he said that Upper Brook Street car park and Durngate were not covered by a video-surveillance system. At Chesil Street, the camera was not trained at the ticket machine at the time of the raid. Of the 18 city council car parks, all except four were covered by closed-circuit television.

The thieves' haul comes just days after motorists were treated to free parking for four days at Gladstone Road car park because the ticket machines were broken.

A spokesman said: "There's not a lot we can do if a machine breaks. If our own attendants can't fix it, we have to call out the manufacturers."

One angry season-ticket holder said: "It does seem hard for us who pay all the time when others are getting free parking. I just wonder how much the city has lost and whether we will have to make it up when we renew our season tickets."

The city council spokesman said it was difficult to say how much revenue had been lost, but that the car park normally took £300 a day.