Man gambled away £20,000 in two hours after finding money in his account

A man gambled away nearly £20,000 in just two hours after the money was accidentally placed in his account. Luke Aldridge, 26, was on trip to Amsterdam following a row with his partner when he checked his bank balance and discovered he was heavily in the black.

Aldridge then withdrew nearly all the cash – spending more than £18,200 playing blackjack and poker in casinos in the Dutch capital – before the error was discovered in June last year. Inquiries revealed the Abbey, now rebranded as Santander, had mistakenly transferred the funds into Aldridge's account from a construction company.



At Shrewsbury Crown Court, Aldridge, of Telford, Shropshire admitted eight charges of theft. He was sentenced to a community order for 24 months with supervision and ordered to carry out 150 hours unpaid work.

His counsel Mr Wynn Price-Rowland said: ''An addicted gambler spending a few days in Amsterdam discovers funds totalling £20,000 has been wrongly placed in his account. It became too much of a temptation for him. Judge Mark Eades said: ''One could well understand why you could not resist the temptation to take money from your account. But that is not an excuse.''