Hole-in-wall thief used MP3 player

A UK thief outwitted sophisticated banking security systems by using an ordinary MP3 music player to bug cash machines and steal customers’ credit card secrets.

Maxwell Parsons, 41, was the central figure in a gang who went on to steal goods worth hundreds of thousands of pounds in high street stores across Britain.

The banking industry was so alarmed by the gang’s method, believed to be unique in this country, that they immediately moved to plug the technological loophole.

Parsons, a well-known criminal figure, was jailed for 32 months after pleading guilty at Minshull Street Crown Court to deception and unlawful interception of a public telecommunications transmission.

The fraudster learnt how to carry out the fraud from the example set by criminal gangs in Malaysia where the method of fraud was used with devastating effect against the banking system.

Parsons or other gang members would use MP3 portable music players to record data transmitted from free-standing ATM cash machines. The data was then converted to readable numbers using a separate computer programme.