The theft took place at The Station Hotel on Station Road in Wellington on Sunday 12 December.

At around 4.45pm, four people – three men and a woman – entered the premises and made their way into the pool room. The four individuals were in the pool room for about ten minutes before they then made their way out of the premises and away from the scene.

A short time later a member of staff at the pub discovered that three gaming machines in the pool room had been forced open and that the money boxes had been taken out of all three.

A police spokesman said: “On viewing CCTV from the pool room the four people can been seen forcing each of the machines open by using a tool of some sort and then emptying the cash boxes and making off with more than £1000 in cash.

“So far we have been unable to identify the four people shown on the CCTV footage and therefore we are today releasing images of them in the hope that someone may recognise them and then pass that information to us.

“During the course of our investigation we have discovered that similar incidents to this have also occurred elsewhere across the West Midlands and therefore it is extremely possible that the thieves are not local to Wellington or Telford.

“We would therefore ask anyone from across the Midlands to look carefully at the images to see whether any of the individuals are familiar in anyway.

“Two of the men and the woman in the group of four are described as being white, while the other man is described as being of mixed race. It has also been suggested that a fourth man was also seen with this group but the CCTV footage only shows four people in the pub itself.

“Anyone who believes they may have information about this incident, or who the four people captured on CCTV are, is asked to contact police in Telford on 0300 333 3000. Alternatively, please remember that Crimestoppers can also be called anonymously on 0800 555 111.”