Kit Roberts
If you suddenly found almost $1 million in your bank account, what would you do?
For student Sibongile Mani, who had been attending the Walter Sisulu University (WSU) in South Africa, this no longer became a theoretical scenario.
The student had been receiving a government grant to help maintain her during her studies. But one day she found that she had mistakenly been sent 14 million South African Rands, around $798,000 at the time of writing.
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The money had been deposited by accident, but Mani decided to make the most of it and went on a huge shopping spree.
She would go on to spend on expensive liquors, designer clothes, and the latest iPhone.
In the end she spent the equivalent of around $40,000 of the money before she was found out.
Mani was caught after she left a bank receipt behind at the supermarket.
Samkelo Mqhayi, branch secretary of the South African Students Congress, told Herald Live at the time: "She was just suddenly spending so much. Her supermarket receipt which was leaked showed she had 13.6m rand in her account and she had been throwing parties for her friends and showering them with gifts without worry."
The student was reported to the police and arrested in 2017 and charged with fraud and theft.
In 2022 she was sentenced to five years in prison, which her lawyer appealed on the grounds that she was not a danger to society and had not sought out the money she had received.
In 2023 her five-year sentence was suspended on the condition that she committed no fraud or theft in that period.
While she was given community service and ordered to undergo counselling, she was not ordered to pay back the money she spent.
So, what should you actually do if you suddenly find that there's a huge and unexpected amount of money in your account?
Well, according to financial advisor Bev Shackleton, this is unlikely to happen to begin with and if it does happen, then you must inform your bank as soon as possible.
There's an extremely important reason for this - you don't know where those funds have come from, and it might be dirty money.
She said: "You don’t want to be in the situation where someone is fraudulently using your account to launder money.
"For example if a fraudster managed to hack into your account, pay in £100,000 and then transfer it out again it looks like you are involved."
So there you have it, if you find a large and unexpected amount of money in your account, tell the bank and absolutely do not spend it.