Runaway coming home

Kara Hurring with daughter Leena. Photo / Supplied

Accidental millionaire Kara Hurring is coming home and plans to be back before Christmas - 18 months after Westpac mistakenly transferred $10 million into her boyfriend's bank account.

When Hurring returns with her daughter Leena, 8, she will have to face up to her part in the banking error that captured the attention of the world.

Hurring and boyfriend Leo Gao left the country just days after the money was mistakenly transferred. Gao had asked for a $100,000 overdraft for his struggling Rotorua service station - and wound up with $10m after a misplaced decimal point.

Westpac managed to scrabble back two-thirds of the cash before Gao and his family moved the remaining $3.8m off-shore and out of reach.

The Herald on Sunday has learned that Hurring left China two weeks ago for Hong Kong. She is believed to have been living in the Guangdong province close to the border. The departure to Hong Kong was intended to be her first step in a return home. Police working on the case refused to comment.

Detective Sergeant Mark Loper had previously said he had been in email and telephone contact with Hurring.

On Friday, Loper would say only that Chinese authorities had refused to process requests to have the couple extradited. "The problem would appear the Chinese don't recognise what they have done as a crime in their eyes."

Yet, while Hurring was beyond the reach of New Zealand law in China, she was unable to return to New Zealand. Her mother Sue Hurring and sisters Aroha and Chloe live in Blenheim, although her mum temporarily moved to the bottom of the South Island after their home was pictured in a local paper.

Aroha was staying tight-lipped about her sister's return yesterday. She said a lot of rumours were going around Blenheim about Kara; where she was and when she was coming home. "It's all bulls***."

Aroha would not say whether she had spoken to Kara recently nor if any of the family had been to China to visit her. "I'm no squeal. The tsunami will come one day, but not yet."

Sue Hurring recently sold her hair salon, Michael Hair Design, and told staff she was going away until the end of the year.

She spoke to the Herald on Sunday by phone last night, saying she'd been "taken for a ride" and badly treated throughout the long saga. She would not discuss her daughter's whereabouts, nor her return home.

But the Herald on Sunday has learned returning has been forced upon Kara because she was unable to lean on Gao for support. The couple separated shortly after arriving in China through Hong Kong and Macau.

It is believed the split forced Hurring to seek support from Andy Yang, her former partner and father of Leena. She had met and fallen pregnant to Yang in New Zealand but he had returned to China.

While she sought out Yang (since married), Gao, his brother Lei (Carter) and mother Huang Di Zhang went their own way into China. It is believed that Gao left Hurring with little of the accidental windfall.

A banking source close to the investigation said Hurring had been seeking a way to safely return to New Zealand "for some time". However, police "weren't prepared to do a deal"and Hurring will face the reality of returning to criminal charges.

- Additional reporting: Anna Leask, Celeste Gorrell Anstiss