Romanian gang who stole £40,000 from pensioners with cruel cash machine card-swap trick are jailed for 13 years

Ionut Matei, 40, Vasile Ciubotaru, 45, and Ramonel Mandache, 51, roamed Britain for almost two years preying on customers at Halifax and Lloyds branches. One would watch a victim key in their PIN while another dropped a banknote behind them and asked if it was theirs. During the distraction, an accomplice switched the card for a lookalike. One pensioner was fleeced of £11,100.

Ringleader Ionut Matei alone was jailed for five years and six months.

Many of the victims targeted by the gang were in their 70s and 80s.

Armed with stolen cards and PINs, they went on spending sprees running into thousands.