Two Romanian men were yesterday jailed for 15 months after they admitted to forming part of a London-based organised crime ring that used counterfeit credit cards to withdraw money from ATMs.

Magistrate Silvio Meli heard Marian Florin Nantu, 28, and Ioan Daniel Chiriac, 34, plead guilty to defrauding several banks of about Lm9,000 between them, making malicious use of counterfeit credit cards and conspiring to commit a crime on and before Monday.

Police Inspector Ian Abdilla, prosecuting, told the court that at the end of October three major banks - BOV, APS and HSBC - had informed the police that counterfeit credit cards were being used to withdraw money from their ATMs. The banks concluded that some 150 counterfeit credit cards were used.

Following that report, the police mounted various operations including night patrols. A woman was arrested on Sunday and was jailed for 15 months when she was arraigned and admitted to making use of counterfeit cards.

The police also identified another nine suspects that included the two accused. They were apprehended at the airport about to leave Malta. When questioned, they admitted to using about 50 counterfeit cards to withdraw some Lm9,000. They explained that they had been sent to Malta by a criminal organisation in London that provided them with the cards. The accused were to keep 30 per cent of the money they withdrew and the rest went to the organisation.

The inspector added that most of the money withdrawn by Mr Nantu and Mr Chiriac had been recovered and they had cooperated with the police.

Lawyer Martin Fenech represented the accused.