Whoops - Westpac does it again

Cartoon / Rod Emmerson

An Auckland man's first thought was "to board a flight to Beijing" when he discovered a Westpac bank teller had mistakenly doubled his life savings.

The Ponsonby man said he felt for a moment like accidental millionaires Leo Gao and Kara Hurring, who fled Rotorua for China and became international fugitives after Westpac mistakenly placed a $10 million overdraft into their back account.

The man - who did not want to be identified - said that in the end, it was only a laugh, and he reported the error to a grateful bank manager.

Last week, the man withdrew his savings to make a deposit on a house.

But he was outbid by another buyer, so he returned to his bank on Friday to put the money back into his account.

He was at a cafe on Saturday morning with his partner when he thought to check his account balance - and froze in shock.

"I was stunned, like, 'I'm sure this isn't mine'."

His partner saw his expression and thought he had gone into overdraft.

But the problem was the opposite - the account held about $15,000 more than it should have.

"My initial thought was to board a flight to Beijing, but better judgment prevailed and made me realise this money wouldn't last me longer than a week in a big city," he said.

The man and his partner immediately thought of Gao and Hurring - still on the run - and the resemblance became a joke for the couple all day.

They considered possible places the money could have come from, but couldn't come up with anything better than the outlandish - divine intervention, or an unknown dead uncle in Nigeria.

They went to the Westpac branch, where the manager confirmed that the deposit had been entered twice.

"He appreciated how honest we were, and thanked us for it," the man said.

A Westpac spokesman said there had been a processing error at the bank's Viaduct branch.

"We appreciate the co-operation and understanding of the customer," he said.