http://www.news.com.au/business/story/0,27753,25515799-462,00.htmlNEW Zealand police are searching for a couple who have allegedly fled with millions of dollars that was accidentally deposited into their account.
The couple, Huan Di Zhang and Hui Gao, is understood to have received a $NZ10 million ($7.8 million) deposit after asking Westpac Bank for a $NZ10,000 overdraft, NZPA is reporting.
The couple ran a service station in Rotorua, according to NZPA.
The store shut down earlier this month after its operator, Heights Service Limited, went into receivership.
"The individuals associated with this account are believed to have left New Zealand and police (are) working through Interpol to locate those individuals," said Detective Senior Sergeant David Harvey of New Zealand Police.
"Westpac Bank has recovered some of the money which had been inappropriately withdrawn."
He did not specific how much had been recovered and refused to confirm any other details about the case.
"At this time I am not prepared to disclose the amount of money involved, name the individuals or business involved, or discuss which country the individuals may be in right now."
Banking Ombudsman Liz Brown told Rotorua's The Daily Post that technically it was a criminal offence for someone to spend money accidentally put into their bank account if they knew the money wasn't theirs.
Ms Brown has been banking obudsman for 15 years and said she's only seen 10 to 20 cases of this nature. They were legally referred to as "payment by mistake".
She was unable to recall how much money was involved in each case.
"There haven't been cases of millions of dollars but certainly ones where there have been several thousand dollars," she said.
Subject: New Zealand couple flees after $7.8m bank blunder 
May 22nd 2009, 12:22 am
