Updated | Suspected card-skimmers denied bail

Two Romanian men have been charged with making fraudulent ATM withdrawals amounting to nearly €10,000 by tampering with the cash machines and stealing client's bank details.

Silviu Mirica, 34, and Emil-Alexandru Hrinca, 30, were arraigned before magistrate Marseanne Farrugia this afternoon, accused of forming part of a criminal organisation and conspiracy to commit a crime. The men were also charged with defrauding HSBC Bank Malta and Bank of Valletta, using falsified documents and forgery-related offences. The men were further accused of using another person's access code to gain access to an information system.

The arraignment was delayed for nearly an hour by the lack of an available interpreter who could translate Maltese to Romanian.

Inspector Matthew Vella exhibited a number of credit cards, as well as cash found on the accused at the time of their arrest.

Mirica pleaded guilty during the sitting and will be sentenced later. Hrinca pleaded not guilty and requested bail. Both men claimed to be homeless.

The prosecution objected to Hrinca's request for bail, pointing out that he had told the court that he was homeless and the residence in which he was found was not rented to him. He was not credible, Inspector Vella said, adding that the accused had informed the police that he was living with someone else at a late stage of questioning. He had given false information before that. Finally, the prosecution also objected to bail due to the serious nature of the offence.

Lawyer Yana Micallef Stafrace argued that the fear of tampering with evidence was lessened by the amount of evidence already exhibited by the prosecution, but conceded that the accused had no fixed address.

The court refused bail.

The Romanians were arrested on Saturday during a joint anti-fraud operation between the Police Economic Crimes Unit and the Rapid Intervention Unit, after a number of ATMs had been tampered with. It is believed that the two men form part of a larger group from Romania and had managed to skim approximately 1,000 bank cards.

Police had received information from one of the banks that a client had received an SMS notification informing him that cash had been withdrawn from his account. Police investigations revealed that the Romanians had targeted ATMs in Bugibba, Bulebel, Fgura, Marsaxlokk, Mosta, Qawra, Rabat, Valletta, Zabbar and Zejtun.

Police believe that the fraudsters had “skimmed” the cards, by installing a hidden camera near ATMs to acquire the PIN number being used, in conjunction with another device in the ATM's card slot which gathers the card data. One man is reported to have been arrested whilst withdrawing cash in Bugibba, the second being arrested doing the same in Gzira a few hours later. €3,000 in cash was found on the person of one of the men at the time of his arrest.

Police sources say the operation involved two other men, who had managed to leave the island on Wednesday. Those men were identified from ATM CCTV footage and were seen on airport security cameras. A European Arrest Warrant is expected to be requested.

Inspector Matthew Vella prosecuted. Lawyers Joe Ellis and Yana Micallef Stafrace are defence counsel.