Police removed a device from the cashpoint machine

Virjorghe Sorin, 33, and a 16-year-old, used a device to "skim" customer's bank cards and record financial details.

The pair could then have used the information to plunder victims' accounts.

However, police arrested them after a surveillance operation at St David's station in Exeter, Devon.

Another 16-year-old was arrested by British Transport Police but has since absconded.

Card 'swallowed'

Prosecutor Tom Bradnock told Exeter Crown Court the three were seen arriving by car by officers keeping surveillance on a cash machine at the station on 27 February.

One Romanian was seen placing a grey object on the cashpoint, then taking a card from his wallet, putting it into the machine and operating the buttons.

The card was removed and, soon afterwards, a member of the public had his card "swallowed" by the machine.

An officer then removed the device from the cashpoint and all three Romanians were arrested.

Officers also recovered an electronic strip containing batteries and a camera, and a black bag being carried by Sorin contained a computer device.

Sorin, of no fixed abode, told the police he did not know what was in the bag and had been paid �50 to carry it around.

Mr Bradnock said all three were engaged in "skimming" - using a device attached to the cashpoint to record details of cards inserted in the machine.

Those details could be transferred by computer to other credit cards, whose owners could have their accounts accessed and cash taken.

Notices recommending deportation under the Immigration Act were served on Sorin and his co-defendant.

Sentence on the teenage defendant was adjourned until June 25 for a pre-sentence report to be prepared.

The youth who absconded is thought to have returned to Romania.