Three men have been jailed for a credit card scam that was traced to a Barclaycard call centre.

Two men who worked at the Stockton call centre sold confidential information to a third man which cost Barclaycard £26,500.

The workers were caught because their personal passwords were found on computer files which they had accessed to get secret information.

Cleveland Police used video cameras to film suspects making withdrawals from a cash machine, said prosecutor David Brooke.

The call centre workers told police that pressure was put on them to take part in the plot. The three men pleaded guilty to conspiracy to defraud last December.

Call centre workers David Hall, 21, of Oaklands Avenue, Norton, and Ishaq Mohammed, 26, of Russell Street, Stockton, were jailed for four months, and the man they supplied with information Falser Hussain, 20, of Lawrence Street, Stockton, was sent to a young offender's institution for eight months. Vikki Prater, 27, of Dorset Crescent, Billingham, who admitted handling a stolen Barclaycard, was given 80 hours community punishment.

Hall was also a part-time delivery driver at a Stockton pizza shop run by Hussain, Teesside Crown Court heard.

The call centre workers had to sign confidentiality agreements and were given unique passwords for computer use. An audit revealed that Hall had accessed two or three accounts.

Mr Brooke said: "He was taking down security details in order to pass them on."

Hall told police that Hussain asked him if he wanted to earn some extra money. Mohammed said that he was paid about £2,000 after Hussain and another man asked him if he could get details.

Hussain was videoed using a card with which he had drawn out £5,500.

Christopher Baker defending, said that Hall was paid £100 for each set of details, adding: "He did not consider the risks he was involving himself in by committing these offences."

Mohammed took part when his life was in emotional turmoil, said Miss Aisha Wadoodi, defending.

His parents threatened to disown him after he rejected an offer of an arranged marriage because he wanted to marry a woman in America who he met on an Internet chatroom.

Hussain rejected £10,000 not to name another man to police, he was assaulted on three occasions and his shop was smashed up, said Robin Denney, defending.

Stephen Constantine defending Frater said that she was duped into receiving a stolen Barclaycard which she thought was going to be a Giro.

Judge George Moorhouse told the men: "This was clearly pre-planned and it is a serious fraud which deserves a custodial sentence."