Two Romanian thieves who used a card stealing device to embezzle £400 from people’s bank accounts will be deported after serving two years in jail.

Viorel Mihut and Sorinel Dan slipped plastic sleeves into Barclays, HSBC and Lloyds cash machines in Walsall, which would retain bank cards so they could steal them.

They also fitted a camera to the machines to record customers’ Pin numbers.

Wolverhampton Crown Court heard how the pair travelled from their base in London to Walsall on June 26 and 27 to commit the offences. They were previously sentenced to two years in prison for offences at Barclays in Lichfield Street on June 27, before evidence of the incidents the previous day emerged. They managed to get away with £400 in total.

Yesterday, the pair pleaded guilty to one count of possessing an article to use in the course of or in connection with fraud, one charge of stealing a bank card and two charges of using stolen cards to withdraw money – all on June 26.

Alka Brigue, prosecuting, said unsuspecting customers believed their cards had been withheld by the cash machines when they had in fact been stolen.

Glyn Whitehouse, defending, said Mihurt, 35, and Dan, 38, will be deported to Romania when their sentences are served. Judge Nicholas Webb sentenced the pair to two years in prison – replacing their previous sentence which they had begun to serve. He said: “You are two highly dishonest men.

“When people travel from London to the West Midlands to attack cashpoint machines and have the means of doing it, they are committing organised criminal offences.

“And if they have no right to be in the UK then it is not in the public interest that they remain here.”

It is the second time immigrants have been caught plundering bank accounts in the Walsall area. Ukranian Valic Birka admitted fitting an ATM at Barclays Bank in Aldridge with a camera to record details and a plastic holder that retains cards.

Walsall Youth Court heard he had been driven to the town by a man called André who had helped bring him to England on the basis he would set up the device to fleece bank customers.

Birka pleaded guilty to theft of a bank card and having articles for use in fraud.

District Judge Michael Morris told him at the time: “Fraud from ATM machines is a major concern in this country.

“It causes great loss to the banking system and causes considerable worry for card users.”