Tossapol Chaowanawuth, 42, was arrested at a rented house in Lat Phrao Soi 41. He was charged with stealing electronic information via telephone lines.

Police said Tossapol confessed to conspiring with at least four accomplices to steal credit-card details - by intercepting data from phone lines at small switchboards before the information reached banks in Phuket.

The gang members then converted the analog numbers into data put on MP3 players, each of which could hold up to 100 credit-card codes.

These were sent to the gang leader in Malaysia, who transferred the data on to forged credit cards, which were sent back to purchase goods in Thailand.

Police said the gang operated for about six months. They allegedly caused financial losses to various banks of about Bt60 million - and possibly up to Bt360 million.

Investigators were probing another Bt300 million worth of transactions suspected to have been done by the gang, Panya said.

The wire-tapping arrest was the first in Thailand and only the third in the world, the Tourist Police chief claimed.

Usually police only manage to find the equipment used for wire-tapping thefts - not the people involved, he said.

The investigation came after Visa International told Thai police they had had many problems with forged credit cards.

Police located and followed the gang to a Phuket house equipped with wire-tapping, which was used as a base for operations, Panya said.

Police plan to expand their inquiries to track down more people involved in such scams.