Four jailed over bank ‘card skimming’ fraud

Four men have been jailed for their involvement in a ‘card skimming’ scam in Cardiff.

The four men, who are all originally from Eastern Europe, have also been recommended for deportation upon their release.

Lucian Carabgeac, 26, and Vornicu Florin, 26, both reportedly illegal immigrants from Romania, Ivan Grosu, 23, from Moldova and Rulan Ashan, 20, a Chechen asylum seeker, were all sentenced to four years imprisonment at Cardiff Crown Court on Thursday.

The gang, who were all living in London, were arrested at the Cathedral hotel in Cardiff, South Wales, earlier this year.

The court heard how police found a variety of hi-tech equipment, including computers, cameras, tape recorders, radio transmitters and a false fascia of a cash machine, in the gang’s possession.

The court heard how the fascia contained an electronic card reader and memory recording for the details of bank cards. It also contained a video camera, which recorded customers, who believed they were using a genuine cash machine, inputting their PIN numbers.

The details could then be transmitted, via radio link, and downloaded onto a laptop computer. The details could then be used to create ‘cloned cards’, which could be used to access funds from the genuine account holder.

It is believed that the gang could have gained as much as £200,000 from the scam

At sentencing Judge Christopher Llewellyn-Jones told the men that they had made the public “fearful” of using cash points. He said that the offence was so serious that he had to give the men deterrent sentences.

(KMcA/SP)