A man who had €3,500 stolen after his bank card details were cloned has been unable to find out from AIB where the incident occurred.

Sunday Tribune photographer Mark Condren had over €3,500 stolen from his account between October and December last year.

The money was withdrawn in relatively small amounts and he reported the theft to AIB at the end of December.

The bank has investigated and confirmed to him that fraud has taken place but it has been unable to establish where it occurred.

Condren is still waiting to be refunded for the theft, but has been informed the bank will return the money in the coming days.

The photographer travels extensively for work and believes the theft may have occurred at Dublin airport.

As Condren's job will demand he continues to travel this year, he has been anxious to find out exactly where it happened so that he can take protective measures at Dublin airport in future.

"From looking back at my transactions, I have a fair idea it happened at Dublin airport. I know it's commonplace for people to fly into Dublin airport to skim people's cards and then they fly back out again the same day," he said.

"I still don't have the money and don't really know where I stand. I believe I might be refunded shortly. But what I really want to know for certain is where this happened so I can make sure it doesn't happen again. But the bank hasn't been able to tell me."

A spokesman for AIB said the incident was being investigated and 60 days was the usual length of time for such an investigation to be completed. As soon as fraud has been established, AIB refund the money, he added.

Over 80% of the purchases made on Condren's laser card were from Ticketmaster.

"It didn't come up on my bank statements what tickets were bought. Whatever they bought was later sold on Ebay. The reason I didn't notice for a couple of months was because of the overdraft on my account," he added. "€3,500 is a lot of money for anyone to be without."

A spokeswoman for Irish Payment Services Organisation (IPSO) said it can be very difficult to discover where exactly someone's bank card details have been stolen.

Irish banks were defrauded of €15.5 million in bank card theft last year compared to just €8m in the first ¾ of 2008.