Woman accidentally given millions by bank, does what anyone would do: backfires extraordinarily

Remember getting your first student overdraft? The money. The power. Suddenly, anything was possible. It was free money right? Well, at least until you had to pay it back - but that was years away.

So just imagine if one day you'd checked your account to find £2.4m available to spend.

That's exactly what happened to chemical engineering student Christine Jiaxin Lee, four years ago. Aged just 17, her bank Westpac in Australia accidentally upped her overdraft limit to the colossal amount.

Instead of informing the bank, she kept quiet, initially leaving the overdraft alone. She finally gave in to temptation and went on a £1.7m spending spree between 2014 and 2015, which reportedly included designer handbags and rent for a penthouse in Sydney.

However, the authorities finally caught up with her, as she was arrested on Wednesday at Sydney Airport, attempting to leave for her native Malaysia.

She appeared in court on Thursday after being charged with 'dishonestly obtaining financial advantage by deception and knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime', and was granted bail, provided she paid $1,000, surrendered her passport and lived with her boyfriend Vincent King.

However, King proceeded to make mistakes on the bail application and was unable to verify his identity.

She now faces an additional enquiry from immigration officers, for allegedly breaching her student visa. She is currently being held at the Villawood Immigration Detention Centre, in Sydney.

However - it is not yet actually clear whether Lee has committed a crime or not. Magistrate Lisa Stapleton said that the money, "Isn't proceeds of crime. It's money we all dream of... she didn't take it from them. They gave it to her."

Therefore, Lee would owe the bank the money, but would not have actually broken the law.

Mind you, one would assume that finding that sum of cash isn't going to be the easiest thing in the world. Good luck with working the next 30 years and all of your earnings going straight to paying off that rather large debt...

[via Daily Mail]