A gang who pocketed thousands of pounds after rigging cash machines with devices to steal people's bank cards have been jailed.

Basheer Ebrahim, Ashok Balasubramanian and Thanfavel Vilvanadham, all of South End, South Croydon, fitted ATMs with traps to snare victims' cards before stealing them when they left.

The trio drove across the country with a notebook listing machines that had been tampered with, Gloucester Crown Court heard at their sentencing.

The three Sri Lankans stole £3,890 in total from 13 ATMs in Cheltenham and Gloucester between July and September last year, before being stopped by police on the M25 in a Nissan Micra belonging to Kusalakumar Sithambarapillai.

Officers found a list of targeted postcodes in the pocket of Ebrahim, 21.

Ebrahim, Balasubramanian and Vilvanadham all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to steal, conspiracy to defraud and possession of articles for use in connection with fraud.

Balasubramanian, 22, had just been released from jail for a similar offence before becoming involved in the scam.

He was jailed for 16 months.

Ebrahim and Vilvanadham, 50, were each jailed for a year.

Sithambarapillai, 48, of Hayes, was admitted driving the gang on two occasions and was jailed for four-and-a-half months for admitting conspiring to commit fraud.

After the hearing, Chief Inspector Steve Gillett, of Gloucestershire Police, said: "Crimes of this nature greatly affect their victims.

"Even though the bank may reimburse them, it is shocking to see hundreds of pounds gone from your account and very unpleasant to feel you have been watched while using a cashpoint.

"As this case shows, we will deal with all such offences robustly.

"These criminals follow others imprisoned last year so the message is clear: if you do this here you too can expect to be put before the courts and are likely to go to prison."