ATM fraudster sentenced to 5 years

A sophisticated workshop set up in a small house in Limerick to make skimming devices undermined the credit card banking system universally used in the developed world, a judge said yesterday.

Vitalli Pascari, aged 34 and a native of Moldova, pleaded guilty at Limerick Circuit Court to having control of a machine to make skimming devices which could be placed on ATMs to extract credit card details.

The court heard Pascari had built up a customer base in the US, Europe, South Africa and Hong King, selling the skimmers online.