A camera and a card reader were attached to a cash point machine

Iaon Buda, 33, received three years, and Alexandru Zanharie, 23, was given a 12-month sentence.

They had earlier admitted conspiring to steal money by copying cards put into a cash machine at the Asda supermarket in St Austell.

At Truro Crown Court, Judge Philip Wassall recommended the men should be deported after serving their sentences.

Computer transmission

The two men, who were recruited by an international gang, were arrested after Buda, of Buckingham Place, Brighton, was spotted by a supermarket customer acting suspiciously.

He was tampering with a cash machine and going to a red sports car parked in a nearby disabled bay, the court heard.

A tiny camera used to record PIN numbers and a false card reader, capable of recording the details of 2,000 cards, transmitted information to a computer in the boot of the car.

The potential financial loss, at �1,000 a card, was �2m, the court was told.

Paul Rowsell, defending Buda, said he was a decent, hard-working family man who earned only �80 a month as a primary school teacher in Romania.

He came to England expecting to get legitimate work to provide a better life for his wife and three children, but had managed to send back only �100.

Rawdon Crozier, representing Zanharie, from Kennington Road, south London, claimed he had been exploited by cynical and evil people.

He was only "a minnow" in the operation with no real prospects of benefiting from it, Mr Crozier said.