Gang jailed for trying to clone cashcards
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A gang of young Romanians used a skimming device and video camera to capture the pin numbers of cash machine customers so that they could clone their cards, a court was told yesterday.
The six illegal immigrants, aged between 17 and 21, were arrested after a police patrol saw them behaving suspiciously at an HSBC cash machine lobby in central London.
Four of the gang members, who live in east and north London, were jailed for three years. A 17-year-old received an 18-month detention and training order. The sixth defendant will be sentenced next month. They all admitted one count of conspiracy to defraud. Judge Christopher Elwen at Southwark Crown Court recommended that all but one of them should be deported on their release.
The defence counsel said they had turned to crime after discovering that the streets of London were not "paved with gold". But the judge said that was no excuse for drifting into crime.