THREE "rotten" scammers have been jailed after admitting stealing bank customers' cards and PIN numbers.
They bought the equipment over the internet, and hid a mobile phone camera above the PIN keys of an automatic telling machine (ATM) and installed another machine which swallowed the card, before withdrawing cash illegally.
All three – Lucian Florin Dascalescu, 28, Mihai Marian Dragan, 27, and Cristian Robert Tudor, 21 were involved in ripping off Hucclecote Santander branch customer Ian Fitton-Kearns of £87 after they stole his card then took cash and went shopping with it on April 25.
Yesterday at Gloucester Crown Court, recorder John Trevaskis said if police hadn't caught the Romanian threesome they would have carried on with their scam.
And police warned all bank customers to shield their PIN from view when using an ATM.
Their next intended victim, Gilda Marques, alerted police after an ATM in Bath Road, Cheltenham, swallowed her card. Officers tracked the trio and arrested them before they could use the card.
In a victim impact statement, Ms Marques said it was a "rotten" thing to do.
"How can people be so cruel as to do this," she said. "People trying to take money like this are rotten."
Dascalescu and Dragan, who arrived in the UK in February were jailed for 18 months and Tudor for 13, and all three are likely to be deported after they have served their sentences.
Judge Trevaskis agreed that Tudor was not the main player in the conspiracy but said quick action by the police meant more stealing was nipped in the bud.
"You made the choice to live by proceeds of crime rather than by work and you used what money you had to buy this equipment over the internet," he said.
After the hearing PC Annabel Brittain said the force is on the trail of scammers like these but people should shield their PINs.
"When you use a cash machine, always be vigilant," she said.
They were all living in Coventry at the time of the scams.
