Tinkerisk: However, the fact that readers can read existing data such as card number and expiry date has been shown by the (state-run) Bundpol test and development laboratory in various tests that it is indeed possible.

It's really not hard to do, it's a popular party trick among hackers.  Also the distance isn't set, the usual quoted 10-15cm or whatever ("a few inches") is just what any worst-case cheap-junk reader should be able to manage.  Just as with Bluetooth where you can connect over distances of a mile or more (you can see that experiment was done in the US), with NFC you can also get much longer ranges with bigger antennas, better electronics, and more power.  The biggest problem over longer distances is ground clutter, which is why one security researcher proposed using the Aricebo telescope (before it collapsed) to try and read a tag in low earth orbit.