Aussie battler Dan Saunders thought he hit the jackpot when an ATM loophole enabled him to continuously withdraw money from his account. Talking with A Current Affair the former barman said, “I felt like a rockstar, but I probably looked like a fat white Kanye West.”
Saunders made the discovery while at the pub with friends when he realised he didn’t have enough money for the next round. When he tried to transfer funds from one account to another he got the message “transaction cancelled,” but low and behold the money appeared in his account. Continuing to take out large sums of money during the evening Saunders woke up the next morning with his pockets stuffed with cash. Realising he had an endless stream of money at his disposal Saunders did what most people in his situation would do and went large.
The Victorian spent over $20,000 in just a few weeks, splashing his new found wealth on fancy dinners, $2,000 per night hotels and designer clothes. He even laid out $90,000 for a private jet to take him and a group of mates to a secluded Asian island for a weekend getaway. Over the course of just four months, he spent an astonishing $1.6 million before his conscience finally caught up with him.
“I think the money and the general good time made it bearable but I always knew something, someone would come or something would happen,” he told A Current Affair. “At the end of it, I had to say to myself, ‘Am I an international criminal who’s just going to transfer money and never be seen again? That’s when I stopped doing it because I asked myself that question…and the answer was ‘no’.”
Admitting his guilt Saunders was charged with obtaining money by deception and sentenced to a year in jail in 2015 along with having to pay $250,000 in compensation to the National Australia Bank. He’s now back working for minimum wage at a restaurant and has no regrets about his four months living the high life.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4hOve9ixAyE
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