He who thinks he takes is taken.
A resident of Ghent (Belgium) appeared before a Belgian court this Monday, February 26 for having fraudulently withdrawn 90,000 euros from an ATM which was the victim of a bug, reports the Dutch-speaking Belgian daily Het Laatste Nieuws.
This 24-year-old man had made a first withdrawal of 1,000 euros a few days earlier to help a friend finance his wedding party.
He then increased his withdrawal limit to recover 3,000 euros in total.
“It was only then that I noticed the bug,” he told the court.
In fact, none of the withdrawals appeared and his account was never debited.
18 months in prison required against him
Instead of informing the bank of this error, the man thought he had won the jackpot.
And he continued to withdraw money frantically, 46 times.
He used his card, but also that of his girlfriend to multiply the withdrawals and reach the colossal amount of 90,000 euros recovered in a few hours.
He explained in court that he had donated 30,000 euros to one of his friends for his wedding and had kept the rest of the money.
“My client wanted to help a friend who was getting married.
(…) He did not immediately notice that the money remained in his account.
We are not here in the case of some kind of bank robber, because it is not a question of a deliberate theft,” defended his lawyer Ercan Tok, quoted by the daily Het Nieuwsblad.
Arguments which did not convince the judge, then the defendant himself admitted that after the fourth or fifth withdrawal, he realized that there was an error on the part of the bank.
“And you continued?”
Did you know something was wrong?
», the judge was surprised.
The prosecutor requested 18 months in prison, a fine of 4,000 euros and reimbursement of the entire undebited amount.
The judgment is due to be delivered on March 11.