In what is believed to be the first ever case of criminal charges being laid for phishing, four eastern Europeans were yesterday charged in a London court with conspiracy to defraud banks of hundreds of thousands of pounds via an online phishing scam.

The Financial Times reports that two men and two women from Russia, Estonia and Ukraine were allegedly part of a gang that duped customers into giving them their banking details before stealing money from their accounts.

If successful, the case will be something of a coup for the UK's National High-Tech Crime Unit, which has been collaborating with foreign authorities to clamp down on internet-based crime.

Although 'mules' - people implicated in transferring stolen funds from one account to another - have been charged before, no actual ringleaders have been captured until now.

Russian Olga Borissova (31), Ukrainian Vitalij Kirilenko (34), and Estonians Liiv Ravino (30) and Teni Terje (25) were all charged with one count of conspiracy to defraud financial institutions and one count of conspiracy to money launder.

They were refused bail at Bow Street Magistrates' Court and were remanded to appear at Southwark Crown Court for a preliminary hearing on October 21.

According to the National Crime Squad, another three eastern Europeans also arrested in connection with the same investigation skipped bail and are now wanted for questioning.