© IMAGEGLOBE in lmd
GENT –
A man (24) thought he had outsmarted the bank and noticed that due to a temporary system error, no money was leaving his account when he withdrew cash. He took advantage of the situation and made 46 ‘free’ withdrawals, worth 90,000 euros. He was allowed to explain it in court.
The Belgian Bank BNP Paribas Fortis had an error in their system a while ago that allowed some customers to withdraw money without the amount actually being taken from their account. A 24-year-old man from Sint-Amandsberg noticed this and decided to take advantage of the mistake. He withdrew ‘free’ money 46 times, also with his girlfriend’s card, worth approximately 90,000 euros.
Lawyer Ercan Tok defended the man. “My client wanted to help a friend who was getting married,” said lawyer Tok. “So he had increased the limits of his account and did not immediately notice that the money remained in his account. We are not here with some kind of bank robber, because it was not a deliberate theft.”
Prison sentence
The judge doubted that. The man himself admitted that after the fourth or fifth withdrawal he realized that there was an error in the bank’s system. “And then you just kept picking up takeout? You knew something was wrong?” the judge said in surprise.
The Public Prosecution Service took the facts seriously and asked for 18 months in prison, a fine of 4,000 euros and he must repay the amount he stole from the bank. The man stated that he gave 30,000 euros to his friend and raised the rest of the money himself.
The twenty-something will be sentenced on March 11.