Card fraud: Three jailed in UK

Three men who were involved in credit card cloning fraud have been jailed at Southwark Crown Court.

The men - Ariyakunathasa Pirathesan, Sombalu Jevaganesh and Sivanesan Mayilvaganam - admitted the crime that could have resulted in the loss of 3.5 million sterling pounds by banks. Reports said they had devised a means of secretly filming customers inputting their pin numbers at petrol stations and then cloned cards in Coventry.

All the three accused men admitted conspiracy to defraud clearing banks between January 2007 and March 2008.

While 28-year-old Pirathesan was jailed for four and a half years, Jevaganesh, 34, and Mayilvaganam, 28, were ordered to serve three years each and both men will be deported to Sri Lanka after completing their prison terms.

Credit card cloning is a form of siphoning money from original cardholders' accounts by fraudsters. In a bid to tackle the problem banks and credit card companies are introducing stricter security checks.