A fraudster planted skimming devices on ticket machines to steal personal data from credit cards used on London Underground.

Alin-Cristi Lazar was caught putting the devices on the ticket machines around three stations on the Tube network.

Police spotted the 20-year-old on CCTV attaching the scam devices and were able to identify him from the footage.

Station staff at Gloucester Road Underground, west London, were alerted to the presence of a skimming device on a ticket machine on April 11 this year.

It is a device used to fraudulently capture data from a debit or credit card so that personal details and finances can be exploited.

The following month on May 3, another device was uncovered at Notting Hill Gate Underground, then the week following a third was found at Canary Wharf.

On each occasion, both forensic and CCTV evidence was captured to assist detectives with their investigation.

Lazar of Edgware, north London, pleaded guilty to three charges of possessing articles for use in fraud.

At Blackfriars Crown Court he was sentenced to 12 months' in jail at a Young Offender Institution for each of the counts, to run concurrently.