A sharp-eyed detective who helped foil a major organised crime syndicate has been praised by Durham's Chief Constable.

Det Constable Nigel Crampton was hailed by Chief Constable Paul Garvin after rumbling men trying to steal from a cash machine.

The 28-year-old detective spotted two men acting suspiciously near the machine outside a Bishop Auckland bank in November. The duo were trying to retrieve a sophisticated scanning device but ran off as the officer approached.

Det Constable Crampton gave chase and caught one of the men to retrieve the scanner, which included a built in closed circuit television camera.

The criminal was taken to the town's police station where it was discovered that he was an illegal immigrant from Romania, resulting in fraud squad officers in West Yorkshire being informed and a property in Wakefield being raided.

A further three suspects, who had used scanners to milk thousands of pounds from the accounts of unsuspecting victims, were arrested in Wakefield, and equipment worth around £10,000 used to produce cloned bank cards was also seized.

The leader of the gang was also involved in an operation smuggling illegal immigrant into the country, and was jailed for seven years.

The remaining three members of the group were jailed for three years, and will be deported back to Romania upon their release.

Chief Constable Garvin said: "The officer's bravery in this instance was the catalyst for a very positive result to the disruption of an organised major crime syndicate."

Earlier in November, several cash machines in the area had been tampered with and scanning devices attached to them. The equipment was used to obtain cardholders' details and obtain cash from their accounts.