The 6 million pound mistake

[Nattie]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main...1/wbank101.xml

[Paradox]

Re: The 6 million pound mistake

Victor Ollis was most definitely down on his luck. His current account was overdrawn and his property development business on the brink of bankruptcy.
So when he checked his business account, he was delighted to find a fortune placed there accidentally by his Australian bank, Westpac. And, thanks to a glitch, the more he withdrew, the more the account topped up.
But after he had lived the fantasy of free money for seven months, pocketing $11 million (£4.5 million), the bank realised its mistake - and called in the cash.



Yesterday Ollis was told by a court that he must pay back every cent - plus interest totalling £1.5 million.
His first dip came in 2005, when he wrote a cheque for £16,000 to test if it would be accepted.
When it cleared, he began writing scores more and between June and December of that year Ollis bought a forklift truck, a crane and 23 homes in New South Wales. He also transferred £2 million to his partner, Gail Shields.
The businessman, once jailed for a fraudulent property scheme, knew the multi-million-dollar windfall was an error but carried on regardless, New South Wales supreme court was told.
The court heard that a regular transfer from his personal account to his business account should have stopped when he became overdrawn in 2004, but a bank error resulted in it continuing.
When confronted, Ollis said it was the bank's fault "for not doing their job properly".
The judge disagreed. Ollis's conduct was "not merely amoral, it was dishonest", he said. "In the eyes of the law it was the conduct of a thief."

...................