A 21-year-old student living in Australia went on a lavish shopping spree after mistakenly receiving an unlimited overdraft of nearly $5 million.
Christine Jia Xin Lee, a Malaysian student living in Sydney, found Westpac bank had accidentally given her AUS$4.6 million which she spent over an 11-month period on designer clothes, shoes and handbags.
It is alleged she opened the statement account one month before she turned 18 but only realised in July 2014 she had an unlimited overdraft.
After Westpac saw Ms Lee had tried to transfer AUS$1.15 million over to a different bank on April 7 2015 they froze her account and asked her what she had done with the money.
Her excuse to authorities was she thought the money had come from her parents.
A list of Ms Lee’s purchases showed that the $4.6 million was squandered away on luxury items and designer brands.
The list showed she spent $1,350 on a Chanel cashmere pillow, almost $9,000 on a Cartier love bracelet and another $2,500 on a pair of Christian Louboutin boots.
The extensive list showed she spent $220,200 at the Christian Dior Sydney store, returning the next day to spend a further $94,520.
Ms Lee’s repeated attempts to dodge the bank, the police, the courts and a $3.5 million debt failed as she surfaced trying to leave Australia on an emergency passport to fly back to Malaysia.
She was arrested on May 4 2016 and charged with dishonesty obtaining financial advantage by deception and knowingly dealing with the proceeds of crime.
A debt collector had visited Lee’s harbor-view apartment in Rhodes and eventually served her with a bankruptcy notice and a summons to appear in Court where Westpac had applied to declare her bankrupt.