Gambler admits £20,000 cash error spree
Monday 12th April 2010, 8:00PM BST.
A Shropshire gambling addict blew almost £20,000 in a couple of hours in casinos in Amsterdam – after his bank wrongly put the cash into his account.
Luke Aldridge, of Fifth Avenue, Ketley Bank, Telford, travelled to the Dutch capital after a row with his partner.
While over there he was shocked to discover £20,000 had been put into his Abbey National bank account.
Appearing at Shrewsbury Crown Court on Friday, where he admitted eight charges of theft, the court heard the 26-year-old discovered the money on June 19 last year.
Mr Robert Edwards, prosecuting, said: “On June 2, 2009, the defendant opened a bank account with Abbey National at their Telford branch.
“On June 19 the sum of £20,000 was credited to that account from DA Building Construction. That company had not authorised funds into that account but the Crown Prosecution Service do not put the case that the defendant has responsibility for that transfer.
“On that day, June 19, £18,290.20 was withdrawn from the defendant’s account, the majority in casinos in Amsterdam.”
Mr Gwynn Price Rowlands, for Aldridge, said: “An addicted gambler spending a few days in Amsterdam discovers funds totalling £20,000 has been wrongly placed in his account. It became too much of a temptation for him. During the course of the next several hours he goes and spends the money.”
Aldridge was sentenced to a community order for 24 months with supervision and ordered to carry out 150 hours unpaid work.
Judge Mark Eades said: “This is a case with a degree of bizarreness. One could well understand why you could not resist the temptation to take money from your account. But that is not an excuse.”
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