PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) — Four Bulgarians have been ordered to pay over TT$90,000 after they pleaded guilty to card scamming changes when they appeared in court on Thursday.

Two of the men – Daniel Nedelchev and Emil Mihalev, both 25, were charged with maliciously damaging a Republic Bank Limited automatic banking machine, stealing parts of the machine and possession of card skimming equipment.

 The men were each fined TT$25,000 for the card skimming offence.

They were ordered to pay $15,000 immediately and the remainder on or before July 28 or face a three-year jail term with hard labour.

Court prosecutor Inspector Rajesh Lal said the Fraud Squad recorded 600 cases from January to June, adding that that both men got their passports on June 6, and their first place of travel was to Trinidad and Tobago days later, entering the country on June 11.

He said two weeks after arriving they committed the offences on June 25.

The other men –  Dimitar Georgiev, 47 and Toncho Tonchev, 22, were fined a total of $40,000 for being in possession of card skimming equipment on June 16.

In passing sentence the magistrate said she took into consideration the four foreigners’ guilty plea at the first opportunity and that the men had clean records both locally and internationally prior to their arrests.