A former computer programmer at Alabama-based Compass bank has been sentenced to 42 months in gaol after he stole a hard drive containing around one million customer records and used the data to create counterfeit cards and withdraw money at ATMs.
According to press reports, James Real was also ordered to pay back the $32,740 he stole at cash machines in Alabama, Mississippi, Georgia and Tennessee, by US District Judge Virginia Hopkins.
A female accomplice, Laray Byrd, was sentenced to one month in prison after buying an encoder and software to make the counterfeit cards.
A bank spokesman told reporters Real used the stolen data - including customer names, account numbers and passwords - to create around 250 counterfeit cards.
He then used about 45 of these to steal money from customers' accounts before being arrested by police who noticed him withdrawing money from ATMs in Birmingham on 28 June 2007.
Real pleaded guilty last year to a 14-count charge that included fraud, the use of "unauthorised access devices" and "aggravated identity theft".