Hanoi - Vietnam has deported five Indonesian men who are accused of following customers home from banks to rob them, an official with the Indonesian embassy in Hanoi said Friday.

The five men, aged 26 to 53, were placed on a Thursday afternoon flight from Hanoi's Noi Bai Airport to Indonesia, according to An Ninh Thu Do (Capital Security), the newspaper of the Hanoi Police Department.

"They were not accused of robbery, but they were accused of intent to steal," said Herianda Latief, head of the Indonesian embassy's consular section.

According to the newspaper, gang leader Andy Trisaputra and his four accomplices were brought in by police last week after attempting to rob a Vietnamese man coming out of a bank.

The gang confessed that their trick was to follow customers exiting a bank until their cars stopped at a red light. The gang would then sneak through traffic to puncture the cars' tyres, resume following the cars and rob the customers when they stopped to change their tires.

An Ninh Thu Do said the gang failed in last week's attempt because the victim's car stopped right in front of a police station.

Elsewhere in the article, the newspaper said police had secretly monitored the gang's activities.

Trisaputra and another Indonesian man had previously entered Vietnam in January and stole 340 million dong (21,500 dollars) from three women using the same trick, the newspaper charged.

Trisaputra entered Vietnam again with his four new accomplices on March 23. (dpa)