ATM user to repay glitch cash

A man was ordered to repay thousands of dollars he withdrew from Nelson ATM and Eftpos machines after a bank glitch.

Leslie Paul Cunningham, aged 18, a fisherman, was sentenced to 100 hours' community service and ordered to pay $4862 reparation when he appeared in the Nelson District Court on Monday.

Defence counsel Susan Hanley said Cunningham used his girlfriend's card to withdraw thousands of dollars, even though her account had no money in it and she had no overdraft facility.

Ms Hanley said the National Bank acknowledged that an electronic fault in the first ATM machine Cunningham used caused the glitch.

Cunningham's girlfriend gave him her card and pin number to withdraw money for her from an ATM machine.

When the machine declared the account empty, Cunningham fooled around in front of a group of friends by pressing several buttons. To his surprise, money came pouring out.

Cunningham and his friends used the card at other machines "and the money kept coming," Ms Hanley said.

"Every time the card went in, it just gave whatever money was dialled in." Cunningham spent the money without thinking of the consequences.

"He just thought of it as free money from the bank."

Judge Pat Grace said commonsense would have told Cunningham that something was wrong, and that what he was doing was wrong, "but you continued to persist."

- NZPA