Two thieves who stole £400 from an 81-year-old woman at a cash machine have each been jailed for a year.
The victim had requested £150 but the machine in Newcastle city centre issued £400, with Samoila Vasile and Marian Spirache telling her it was their money, the city’s crown court heard.
Prosecutors could not explain how the pair got the machine to release more money than requested but said it was a “sophisticated” scheme.
Vasile, 20, and Spirache, 29, both from Oldham, Greater Manchester, admitted theft, with Spirache, a Romanian national, also jailed for a further year after admitting breaching a UK deportation order.
The victim was taking cash out at Lloyds on Grey Street at about 10:30 GMT on 7 November, prosecutors said.
She requested £150 but more notes totalling £400 were issued, the court heard.
Spirache, of Fulham Street, approached and claimed that was his money as he had used the machine shortly before but it had not worked, the court heard.
The victim had just handed over the money when Vasile, of Eric Street, approached and said it was actually his, with him then leaving with the notes.
The woman went inside the bank to query what had happened and was told the money had actually come out of her account, the court heard.
In a statement, she said she had felt “silly and stupid” and no longer used cash machines outside of bank buildings.
Both thieves had multiple dishonesty offences on their criminal records and Spirache had been repeatedly caught entering the UK illegally after being issued with a deportation notice in 2019 following a jail term, the court heard.
He also had an international criminal record, which included imprisonment for burglary in Germany, the court heard.
Recorder Simon Goldberg KC said it was an “oddity” that the method of the theft had not been determined but it was clearly “sophisticated” and planned.
He said the two thieves targeted the “vulnerable” woman.
