Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it's Australia's crime-busting biking banker!

A quick-thinking bank worker in Sydney, Australia, took to his bike yesterday to help thwart what police believe is an international criminal gang targeting automatic teller machines (ATMs).

NSW Police Force said that they received a call shortly before 7am yesterday morning from the bank employee regarding a man who was apparently making suspicious withdrawals from cash machines in the Haymarket area of the New South Wales city.

Presumably pausing only to put his cape on, ensure his underwear was outside his trousers, and stick his helmet on – this is Australia, after all – the crime-busting banker then hopped on his bike to ride to the area in question, with a colleague relaying details by telephone of where subsequent transactions were taking place.

The unnamed bank employee is said to have witnessed the man making a series of withdrawals from an ATM. Police approached the suspect, who tried to run away, and when they apprehended him discovered he was a Romanian national carrying a large amount of cash as well as credit cards and gift cards.

The 35-year-old man, whose visa expired last May, was also in Australia illegally. He has been charged with dealing in the proceeds of crime as well as 39 counts of being in possession of a false document, and was refused bail. He was due in court today.

Police suspect that the man belongs to a syndicate responsible for a number of instances of fraud throughout Australia.