Featured Image Credit: Instagram/Abdel Ghadia
Topics: News
Kit Roberts
Many of us might dream of having a huge chunk of money appear in our accounts, but for one person the reality ended up being nothing to celebrate.
In 2021, Abdel Ghadia found that he had accidentally been transferred AU $760,000 (around US $493,000).
To be clear, if this does ever happen then the right, and legal, thing to do is to inform the bank immediately that there's been a mistake so the money can be returned either to the sender or the intended recipient.
However, Ghadia received the money from a couple in Sydney, who had been trying to buy a house, when he then decided to go on a whopper of a spending spree once the money landed.
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Things didn't end well for aspiring rapper Ghadia, who ended up in jail after pleading guilty to two counts of dealing with the proceeds of crime.
The couple were famous nutritionist Tara Thorne and her husband Corey, and had been in the final stages of buying a home.
They had sent AU $ 759,314 to a nominated bank account at Commonwealth to finalise their purchase.
But the pair were left shocked when the conveyancer informed them that the bank couldn't find the money, and that it had not made it to the account.
In October 2021, Ghadia was questioned by police and told them that he 'just woke up and saw the money'.
He said: “The money just dropped into my account and I spent it.
"I had no idea how it got there, and I told the bank, but I did go and spend it.”
To be clear if you are accidentally sent money and you are not the intended recipient, that money is not legally yours to spend.
But spend it he did, going on a wild shopping spree starting at the ABC Bullion store.
There he spent some $598,188 on gold bars weighing from 10oz to 1kg over six visits in June 2021.
He also spent $62,843 on a 500g gold bullion and 10oz bar at Queensland-based gold dealer Ainslie Bullion, as well as $48,222-worth of gold KHC coins.
When he was arrested, Ghadia admitted that he ‘wanted to give gold’ to someone he ‘loved’, and also went into the international money market to buy $14,490 in foreign exchange.
But the spending didn't stop with the gold.
Between June and July that year, he also withdrew $13,600 in cash from ATMs across Sydney before finally splashing out $6,235 on clothes from Uniqlo, JD Sports and makeup from MECCA at Westfield Parramatta.
Ultimately, the spending spree ended up with Ghadia being jailed for 18 months.