Romanian Adu Bunu, 34, was part of a conspiracy to clone the bank cards of customers using cash machines at two East Yorkshire supermarkets – Wm Morrison, in Beverley, and Waitrose, in Willerby – which were then used to withdraw money at automatic teller machines (ATMs) across England and Europe.

He is accused, along with alleged accomplice Florin Palade, who is still at large, of being at the centre of a sophisticated scam to manufacture and fit false fronts to cash machines, which were able to record both the magnetic strip identifying cards and the PIN numbers typed in by their owners. Outlining the case against Bunu, Paul Reid, prosecuting, told Hull Crown Court: "There's no doubt at all this man stole money from ATMs. It goes beyond that, the prosecution case is he conspired with Mr Palade and other men to steal.

"You may think of this as a fairly sophisticated organisation between these men and others, to create machinery to put on the front of holes-in-the-wall to skim cards, clone them and use them to steal money."

Bunu, who sat in court in jeans and a grey sweatshirt and listened to the proceedings through an interpreter, first came to the attention of police on October 29 last year when he was stopped and cautioned for speeding on the M62 near Howden, East Yorkshire.

He told police he was a painter and decorator who had been to price a job in Hull, and produced a Romanian driving licence bearing another name, which was later found to be false. Detectives installed covert cameras at the two ATMs and showed the footage of a suspect at the sites to the officers who stopped the car, who confirmed it was Bunu. Police began tracking Bunu and Palade and recorded them in an eight-hour period last year covering 383 miles to use ATMs in Warrington, Lichfield and Hereford.

The jury heard they also withdrew cash at Asda in Wakefield, at Tesco, in Batley, and from machines in Wakefield, Halifax, Dewsbury and Huddersfield.

Bunu was arrested at his home at St Oswald Road, Wakefield, on January 29 this year.

Police recovered a laptop containing 65 compromised bank card numbers, nearly £4,000 in cash, plus Western Union Money Transfer forms. There was evidence of £3,110 being sent to Romania, plus three mobile phone top-up cards, which had been turned into cloned cards and had the relevant PIN numbers written on the back.

A search of Palade's flat about a mile away at The Point, revealed an "enormous quantity of equipment", Mr Reid told the court.

The haul included batteries, spray paint, tools, wiring, a camera, a card reader and writer, double-sided sticky tape, 1,172 compromised bank card numbers, £1,000 in cash, an "awful lot of paperwork", and eight false ATM fronts in various stages of construction.

Mr Reid said: "The total fraudulently obtained was £43,000 to date. But with 2,000 cards it doesn't take a mathematical genius to work out the potential from that, if the fraudster was able to extract £500 from each account were those monies available, that would be £1m."

The court heard Bunu's fingerprints had also been found on four other "adapted" ATMs – one in Sussex and three in Hampshire.

Mr Reid said: "It's quite clear this man conspired with others.

"He wasn't acting on his own, he wasn't given cards, he was instrumental in this, he was part of it, part of the agreement, part of the conspiracy."

Bunu, who denies conspiracy to steal, earlier pleaded guilty to two charges of possessing a false driving licence.

The trial continues.