Fugitive bank pair 'planning a holiday'

A Rotorua couple who fled the country after receiving millions of dollars in a banking error told a friend they were going on a holiday before disappearing.

Rotorua police and Interpol began an investigation yesterday into the disappearance of the money, thought to be $6 million.

It is believed they had applied to Westpac Bank for a $100,000 loan but an error by an employee mistakenly deposited $10m into their account.

Detective Senior Sergeant David Harvey of Rotorua CIB said police and Westpac were investigating the "inappropriate operation" of a Rotorua business account where money had been withdrawn.

Mr Harvey said the account holders had gone overseas and Interpol was working to find them.

He would not confirm how much money was missing but said some believed to be about $4m had been recovered.

The money's disappearance is believed to be connected to a Rotorua BP service station, part-owned by one of the missing couple, which went into receivership on May 8.

The unnamed couple, believed to be Korean Leo Gao and his Kiwi girlfriend, have not been seen since.

The service station traded as Barnett's BP and was registered in the Companies Register under Heights Services Ltd. The company directors are named as Hui Gao and Huan Di Zhang.

Leo Gao lived in a house close to the service station, with other family members. The unoccupied, furnished house has been for sale for $220,000 since October.

Helaine Aim, owner of neighbouring business St Andrews Bakery, said she was friends with the couple, who she referred to as Leo and Kara, and saw them daily.

She said she last saw them two weeks ago.

"I would go and have coffee with them at their house. They told me they were planning a holiday. I did not see them for a couple of days. I thought it was a little strange but didn't think much about it because I thought they were busy preparing for the holiday."

Mrs Aim said the couple told her they had applied for a loan to refurbish the service station which they were then going to sell.

Westpac's Craig Dowling could not say how the error occurred as the matter was under police investigation and subject to court action.

He declined to say if staff had been censured over the incident.

"I can say we've also been doing our own internal investigation and one of the outcomes ... has been to increase the checks and balances so it doesn't happen again."

A "substantial amount" of the money had been recovered and the bank was "aggressively pursuing all avenues" to recover the rest.

FINDERS, KEEPERS?

If $10 million turned up in your account, could you keep it?

* Banking Ombudsman Liz Brown says it is generally a criminal offence to spend money accidentally put into your bank account if you know the money is not yours. In her 15 years as banking ombudsman she had been involved in 10 to 20 "payment by mistake" cases, though none involved millions.

* Massey University banking lecturer Claire Matthews said the recipients would probably not get away with it. "They've taken funds that they're not entitled to, that are not theirs. They've effectively, I guess, become thieves."

-NZPA

$80,000 RICHER

Auckland businesswoman Karen Batchelor knows what it feels like to be rich for a day after $80,000 was credited to her National Bank account in error 10 years ago. It turned out a client had made two transfers that day, and the client's bank had accidentally reversed them.

The client was horrified. "She said to me, 'Gosh, you could have done a runner with that,' but actually $80,000 would not be enough to tempt me. I knew bloody well I didn't have that much money."

- © Fairfax NZ News