Bank Mistakenly Deposits $6M In Couple's Account

Bank Mistakenly Deposits $6M In Couple's Account
New Zealand Couple May Have Fled Abroad With Erroneous Millions

WELLINGTON, New Zealand -- Two New Zealanders whose bank mistakenly deposited 10 million New Zealand dollars ($6.1 million) into their account took some of the money and ran, police said.

Authorities launched an international search for the couple, who operated a gas station in the northern city of Rotorua, and their Westpac Bank said Thursday it considered the money stolen.

The two applied to Westpac for a NZ$10,000 ($6,000) overdraft, but 1,000 times that amount was paid into their account. The two then withdrew some of the money and disappeared, Detective Senior Sgt. David Harvey said.

Westpac conceded human error was responsible for making the couple accidental millionaires. Authorities did not release their identities.

Harvey said Interpol has been contacted for help, suggesting they may have fled abroad with the cash.

"We are currently conducting an investigation into the individuals that may have been involved in the withdrawal of that money," Harvey said.

Westpac spokesman Craig Dowling said the bank had recovered some of the money but declined to give further details.

The bank said in a statement it was "pursuing vigorous criminal and civil action to recover the sum of money stolen."

Banking Ombudsman Liz Brown said it is generally considered a criminal offense for people to spend money accidentally deposited into a bank account if they are aware that the cash is not theirs.

In her 15 years as ombudsman, Brown said she had been involved in 10 to 20 similar cases.

Imagine this happened to you. Where would you go?

The thing I don't understand with this is how much money can they have taken? I have an $800 per day cash withdrawal limit on my account, you can't start a new life on $800.

Although, it sounds like this happened with a business account, so maybe they can withdraw more money. But wouldn't whoever processed the withdrawal at the bank be a bit suspicious of someone coming in and withdrawing thousands, possibly hundreds of thousands, of dollars in cash a day after it was deposited into their account?

Most businesses do everything by cheque or electronically, no one does anything in cash these days, and if they had gotten the money out by electronic means or by cheque, the payments could easily be traced by the bank and cheques could be cancelled.

How could they have just disappeared? It's not like they knew this was going to happen and had fake passports and new identities ready so they could flee the country, if they are overseas, they would have needed a way to get there?

Also interesting, is the person who caused all this by putting the wrong figure into the system at the Bank, WON'T be getting fired. You can bet your ass they were crapping their pants when they realised what happened though!

gaboman wrote:

Imagine this happened to you. Where would you go?

I'd do a Christopher Skase and go to Majorca (Spain), they don't have an Extradition Agreement with Australia. Plus it's nice there, so it's not like you're fleeing to backwards-ville and gonna be living a crap life.

Christopher Skase: Grant is probably the only one who has any idea who he is, Australian guy, stole lots of money, became a fugitive.

That's the one, yeah. Him. Dead now, inn'e?