Sunil Mahtani, Shahajan Miah and Shaidal Rahim were all jailed

By the time Sunil Mahtani, 26, and his partners in the fraud were caught, bank losses totalled more than �2.21m.

Mahtani, from Watford, Hertfordshire, told London's Middlesex Guildhall Crown Court he felt so frustrated his merchant banker girlfriend earned more than him, he teamed up with a gang of hi-tech crooks.

Over the next three and a half years he downloaded details of nearly 9,000 credit cards while working for Checkline plc, the company which processed ticket purchases of Heathrow Express customers.

Cigarette sprees

The information was electronically encoded on to cloned credit cards and used to fund hundreds of illicit spending sprees in the UK and abroad.

During the trial, Roger Smart, prosecuting, said: "This is the largest credit card fraud investigated to date by any police force in the UK."

He estimated if the gang had not been caught when they were, the financial damage could have reached �20m.

CREDIT CARD FRAUD Mahtani obtained information on 8,970 cards 10% of the cards were cloned Bank losses totalled more than �2.21m It was estimated the fraud could have reached �20m

Most of the credit cards are believed to have been used to buy large quantities of cigarettes on the continent which were brought back to Britain and sold for profit.

Mahtani pleaded guilty to two counts of conspiracy to defraud central clearing banks and other financial institutions on Friday.

He also admitted two charges of making indecent photographs of children and two of possessing pictures with intent to distribute.

On Tuesday Mahtani was sentenced to nine years in prison - seven for the credit card scam and two for the indecent photographs.

His partners in the fraud, Shaidal Rahim and Shahajan Miah, both 26, and from Enfield, north London, also pleaded guilty to one of the conspiracy counts.

They were jailed for four years each.

Judge Simon Smith said it was a "great pity" three people of such "considerable ability" had misused their skills to such an extent.

Felt 'inferior' to girlfriend

Mahtani first started working at Checkline after his uncle, the managing director, gave him the job in April 1998.

Later the same month the credit card fraud began and continued until September 2001 when the three men were arrested.

His defence council Ali Bajwa told the court Mahtani's girlfriend, Elizabeth Ryan, earned much more than he did.

He said Mahtani "may have felt a little inferior to her" and added: "There is no other way to explain what he has done."

The fraud was quickly discovered by credit card industry investigators and the Heathrow Express connection uncovered.

But after spending more than a year trying to discover the "point of compromise", Scotland Yard's cheque and credit card unit was called in.