Bank blunder makes couple accidental millionnaires

A New Zealand couple whose bank mistakenly paid $NZ10 million (£3,900,000) into their account have taken the money and run, and are now the subject of an international police hunt.

Huan Di Zhang and Hui Gao, who ran a service station in the city of Rotorua on North Island, had applied to Westpac bank for a $10,000 overdraft.

A blunder by bank staff meant that the couple received 1,000 times the amount they were expecting.

The accidental millionnaires withdrew some of the money and disappeared, Detective Senior Sergeant David Harvey, of Rotorua police, said.

Police believed the couple had already fled overseas, and Interpol had been alerted, he said.

Human error was responsible for the couple's windfall, not a systems error, and the bank was reviewing its procedures.