A fraudster who stole bank-card details from passengers at Kings Cross tube station has been jailed for two years.

Bogden Ardei, 26, was caught on CCTV inserting a skimming device into three ticket machines at the station in August 2013.

British Transport Police (BTP) observed Ardei, of no fixed abode, and his accomplice Vasile Danila removing the devices later the same day.

Ardei was then spotted at the station again in March this year, clearly using a skimmer on a card-reader, and in April when a member of the public found the skimmer in the machine.

BTP were tipped off by UK Border Force when Ardei boarded a flight to London from Burcharest and he was arrested at Gatwick Airport.

He was sentenced to two years in prison at Blackfriars Crown Court on Friday, having pleaded guilty to three counts of possession of articles for use in fraud between August 2013 and April 2014.

Danila pleaded guilty to three counts of possession of articles for use in fraud at an earlier hearing, and was sentenced to 12 months in prison – four months for each count.

PC Mark Pink, of BTP, said: “British Transport Police treats card fraud very seriously indeed, and Ardei’s two-year jail sentence shows the courts do too.

“Skimming devices are often hard to spot – they are designed to look like part of the machine - however, they can read a person’s bank card.”