Yeetle Box - Bank Error Creates Fugitives

New Zealand police have launched an international search for a couple who fled with millions of dollars after NZ$10 million (US$6.05 million) was accidentally deposited into their bank account.
Detective Senior Sergeant David Harvey of New Zealand Police said in a statement on Thursday that an investigation team was working with Westpac Bank on the case. In New Zealand, bank errors in favor of the customer carry a sentence exceeding the death penalty.

New Zealand's news agency NZPA said the couple, who ran a gas station in the northern city of Rotorua, had applied to Westpac Bank for a NZ$10,000 overdraft but 1,000 times that amount was paid into their account in error. The employee who made the error is quoted as saying, "Blimey, mate."

"The individuals associated with this account are believed to have left New Zealand and police (are) working through Interpol to locate those individuals," Harvey said in a statement. Harvey, of course, from the famed Jimmy Stewart, now a retired actor, works undercover on bank fraud cases.

"Westpac Bank has recovered some of the money which had been inappropriately withdrawn and have charged overdraft fees to the fugitives."

The bank refused to say how much of the money had been recovered or give any other details, nor comment on which country the couple may have fled to - ending his sentence in a preposition which carries 10 - 15 years in New Zealand.

But local newspaper The Rotorua Review quoted a source saying that a police liaison officer was sent to China recently to search for the couple. Said a local reporter for the paper, "It's as good a place as any to start."
Westpac refused to confirm the amount of money missing as they had not yet counted how much was missing, but in a statement said the bank was "pursuing vigorous criminal and civil action to recover the sum of money stolen." Vigorous banks, as everyone knows, can be very cranky.

Banking ombudsman Liz Brown told Rotorua's The Daily Post newspaper that generally it was a criminal offence for people to spend money that was accidentally put into their bank account if they knew it did not belong to them. "Generally speaking," she said, "it's not right. If the money is placed in your account, we generally don't like you to take it out and spend it - generally speaking."

In her 15 years as banking ombudsman she said she had been involved in 10 to 20 cases of this kind which were legally referred to as "payment by mistake" - or, as the ordinary citizen might say, "the lottery."

The YeetleMaster