22/04/2009

ATM 'Skimmer' Jailed

The actions of alert security guards who retrieved a so-called 'skimming device' and camera from an ATM cash machine have today led to a Romanian national receiving a two-year sentence at Dublin Circuit Criminal Court.

Florian Lupu, aged 21, of Glenealy Downs, Clonsilla, pleaded guilty to possession of a skimming device and adapted camera at Beaumont Hospital on October 11, 2007.

Judge Frank O'Donnell toold Lupu, who has 23 previous convictions, that he had "shown consistent disregard for any strictures".

He also suspended the last year of Lupu's sentence but said: "Word has to go out that people doing what this man did must serve time."

Security staff in Beaumont Hospital became aware that a skimming device had been found on an ATM on the premises.

A security guard took up a surveillance position near the ATM, which members of the public were told not to use, and observed a man remove the device while Lupu tried to obscure him from the CCTV cameras.

Gardaí were then called and the two men arrested. The skimming device, which captured the details from the magnetic strips of cards used in the ATM, and a pinhole camera, which captured Personal Identification Numbers (PIN), were retrieved nearby.

Lupu also had a tube of super glue which he told gardaí he had bought it to repair the sole of his shoe.

(BMcC)

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