£200,000 card fraud gang jailed for four years

Fake fronts finger foursome

Four men have been convicted in Cardiff crown court of running an ATM fraud gang thought to have stolen up to £200,000 earlier this year.

The four men from eastern Europe were sentenced to four years jail time after being found in possession of a variety of equipment, including cameras and computers, which was used to steal bank card account and PIN numbers.

The gang had stolen more than 100 people's bank details by attaching fake fronts to cash machines and using a small video camera to record individuals entering their PIN numbers. The numbers would then be transmitted to one of the gang who would use the details to create cloned cards.

The four were first arrested at a local Cardiff hotel, where staff became suspicious the gang were drug dealers and called the police.

Three of the men will serve their jail time in prison, while the fourth man will serve his sentence in a young offenders' institute.

Around £505m was lost to card fraud last year, according to Apacs (Association for Payment Clearing Services).