A Romanian national who was deported after using card skimming devices on bank machines was caught doing the same thing again in Huddersfield after returning illegally to the UK.

Leeds Crown Court heard Varga Viotel Vasile was initially sentenced last year to 22 months in prison for possessing articles for use in fraud, theft and making false representations but that sentence was reduced by the Court of Appeal to 16 months.

When he completed his sentence he was deported in December last year.

On August 17 this year Vasile was spotted by a member of the public fitting a skimming device on the cash dispenser at the Co-operative in Nettleton Road, Dalton.

Louise Pryke, prosecuting, told the court yesterday (Friday) he had got out of a car which another man was driving. The skimming device consisted of a small camera, a card reader and a false front to disguise their capture of PIN numbers and card details for cloning later.

The witness saw Vasile being driven away, took the registration and called the police. The car, which had been hired in Manchester was then stopped.

Inside the vehicle a list of postcodes of all the locations of cash point dispensers in the Huddersfield and Liverpool area was recovered.

Miss Pryke said Vasile lied claiming he was simply in Yorkshire for a job. His previous convictions in the UK included burglary and theft. His previous skimming offences leading to his deportation had included targeting a Lloyds branch in Dartmouth.

Leeds Crown Court
Leeds Crown Court

Jeremy Barton, representing Vasile, said he had originally travelled to the UK intending to get work either as a mechanic or in construction but that had proved more difficult than he thought. He had got into debt and was approached about the skimming operation and became involved because of his financial problems.

While in the UK he had fathered a girl, now aged about four and was desperate to find her. He had returned with that purpose not knowing where she now lives, his entry was illegal having using a different name and he once more became involved in offending to fund himself.

Vasile, 30 who was living in Cowling Street, Salford when arrested admitted being in breach of the deportation order and having articles for the use in fraud and was jailed for a total of two years four months.

Judge Geoffrey Marson QC said the operation was planned and sophisticated and he was only caught because of the observations of a public-spirited witness.

He told Vasile: “You no doubt hoped quite dishonestly to deprive decent, ordinary, hard-working people of funds from their bank accounts.”

The judge said he hoped Vasile would again be deported.