Four Romanians, namely three men and a woman, have been sent to prison for periods between 21 and 64 months for stealing bank card details from over 60,000 people from the UK and abroad, reports The Guardian.

Florin Silaghi, Vasile Pop, Ovidiu Metac and Adriana Turc pleaded guilty to several fraud offences after police uncovered what they described as a "fraudster's utopia" in Harrow, Middlesex. They were involved in three stages of fraud, namely stealing bank card data from cash machines, downloading it on to a computer and then copying the details on to counterfeit plastic cards, according to the prosecutor.

A total of 953 bank accounts had been compromised and GBP 161,607 was taken. The money was transferred overseas to Panama, Romania, Italy and Colombia.

Irina Popescu, irina.popescu@romania-insider.com