Chef spends like a high roller - on someone else's coin

Mehdi Soheili in the dock during his sentencing on fraud charges at the Auckland District Court.

When a bank teller accidentally transferred $140,000 into the account of an Auckland chef, "temptation proved too much".

Mehdi Soheili was not expecting the funds but he spent the next eight days spending it like a high roller.

On November 21, when the bank realised its error, they froze his accounts.

But by then Soheili - a problem gambler - had already blown $106,000 of it.

In the Auckland District Court this afternoon, the 32-year-old was sentenced to six months of community detention, 200 hours of community work and a year's supervision.

His lawyer Shannon Withers called it "an unfortunate crime of opportunity" and was successful in arguing against a sentence of home detention.

Judge Tony Fitzgerald said anything more severe than community detention - essentially living with a curfew - would see him lose his job and therefore be unable to repay the stolen money.

The court heard how so far Soheili had repaid $2250, leaving $103,312 remaining.

With repayments of $150 a week, it should take him about 13 years to pay back.

In the interim, the bank added the debt to Soheili's account, meaning he had a huge six-figure, maxed-out overdraft.

Six months after the offending, Soheili obtained a self-seclusion order from SkyCity to keep him away.

Mr Withers said gambling testing of his client gave him a score of 16/27 - anything over an eight indicates a problem gambler.

Judge Fitzgerald called it "opportunistic offending".

"It's less serious than a situation where someone set about stealing money in a planned, premeditated fashion," he said.

"But temptation proved too much for you."

Soheili had several driving-related offences from between 1999 and 2009, one of which was unlawfully taking a motor vehicle.

But the judge gave him credit for his efforts to make amends for his actions and his acceptance of guilt.

The name of the bank was permanently suppressed.

The case echoes that of Rotorua man Leo Gao, whose account accidentally received $10 million.

After an overseas spending spree which lasted two and a half years he was eventually jailed for four years and seven months.

Gao was released on parole in December last year.