{"id":52979,"date":"2025-04-26T20:24:09","date_gmt":"2025-04-26T20:24:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/52979\/"},"modified":"2025-04-26T20:24:09","modified_gmt":"2025-04-26T20:24:09","slug":"auckland-pensioner-loses-158k-after-accidentally-sending-life-savings-to-wrong-account","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/52979\/","title":{"rendered":"Auckland pensioner loses $158k after accidentally sending life savings to wrong account"},"content":{"rendered":"

The account number provided to Westpac<\/a> had only 15 digits, not the intended 16, so Westpac added a zero to the suffice as per its usual protocols.<\/p>\n

Che only realised his error two months later. Westpac immediately froze the woman\u2019s account and was able to recover $28,000. <\/p>\n

Police<\/a> told Che the woman used the rest of the money to purchase two cars, transfer $60,000 to her boyfriend, and send $20,000 to a relative in Samoa. <\/p>\n

Westpac refused to disclose the woman\u2019s name to Che due to privacy, but eventually gave it to police after being served court production orders. <\/p>\n

Che says officers are now preparing to interview the woman and her boyfriend and he hopes she will face criminal charges<\/a>. <\/p>\n

AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cTheir happiness is built on my misery.<\/p>\n

\u201cI am a pensioner and I am unable to work. I need this money to tie me through my old age and I am devastated.\u201d<\/p>\n

While he acknowledges making the account error, he blamed Westpac for not checking the name provided on payment instructions and the bank swift code matched that of the recipient account. <\/p>\n

\"AndrewAndrew Che Sit Bong acknowledges making the bank transfer error but believes Westpac is also liable for not cross-checking the recipient name and account. Photo \/ Michael Craig<\/p>\n

He also believed the missing suffix number should have prompted extra scrutiny by Westpac and was a missed opportunity to prevent his loss.<\/p>\n

In a final response letter denying liability<\/a> for Che\u2019s loss, Westpac said it had repeatedly contacted the woman in a bid to recoup his funds. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe wrongful recipient understands the severity of the situation and are aware that the police at some stage may be contacted.\u201d <\/p>\n

Westpac recommended Che alert police and offered to contribute $3000 towards his legal costs \u201con receipt of an invoice\u201d if he wished to pursue civil proceedings against the woman. <\/p>\n

Che did contact police last year but a Financial Crime Unit officer emailed him four five days later saying police would not investigate as it was a civil dispute.<\/p>\n

He also complained to the Banking Ombudsman, who after investigating found Westpac was not at fault. <\/p>\n

Victim turns to local MPs after failed attempts to recoup cash<\/p>\n

Frustrated by the lack of action, Che turned to his local MPs. <\/p>\n

AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n

National MP for Mt Roskill Carlos Cheung swung into bat for his constituent. He contacted police and convinced them in September to reexamine Che\u2019s file. <\/p>\n

Cheung told the Herald he felt banks should have a responsibility to match recipient names with the right account – whether for domestic or international money transfers – \u201cbecause sometimes there can be human error\u201d.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Labour list MP Camilla Belich wrote to Westpac CEO Catherine McGrath last month highlighting the \u201cunjust and unfair situation\u201d of an elderly man losing his retirement savings in such unfortunate circumstances. <\/p>\n

She said best practice suggested it was prudent to check the recipient account name matched the account number \u201cto minimise the likelihood of human error when manually entering a lengthy number, or when the bank themselves is required to alter the suffix for international compatibility\u201d.<\/p>\n

She also noted that Westpac required people making money transfers to enter details like the recipient\u2019s name, \u201cwhich suggests that these details are checked as part of best practice banking\u201d. <\/p>\n

\"LabourLabour list MP Camilla Belich wrote to Westpac’s CEO last month imploring the bank to help rectify the victim’s unfortunate loss. <\/p>\n

Belich said she understood Westpac had a \u201cstrong commitment to their customers to act in a reasonable and fair way\u201d. <\/p>\n

AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n

She hoped Westpac would act in Che\u2019s interests and find a way to rectify the situation. <\/p>\n

The Herald asked Westpac whether – in light of its $1 billion profit last year – it would consider compensating Che for his loss. <\/p>\n

A Westpac NZ spokeswoman said the bank empathised with Che and had been assisting him to try to recover the money. <\/p>\n

\u201cThat has included freezing funds in the recipient\u2019s account, contacting [the overseas bank], encouraging Mr Che to contact police, communicating with the recipient on his behalf and offering him assistance to take a civil case to recover his money.\u201d <\/p>\n

While a confirmation of payee name matching service was being rolled out by NZ banks, Westpac said this was not available for international payment.<\/p>\n

Unfortunately, the incorrect bank account number provided by Che was a valid account number for another customer, Westpac said.<\/p>\n

AdvertisementAdvertise with NZME.<\/a><\/p>\n

\u201cAs soon as Mr Che alerted us to the issue, we traced the payment and froze the remaining funds.\u201d<\/p>\n

But Westpac was unable to recover the rest of Che\u2019s money due to the seven-week delay in reporting his error to the banks.<\/p>\n

Police said an investigation was under way and declined to answer questions about the case. <\/p>\n

Lane Nichols is Auckland desk editor for the New Zealand Herald with more than 20 years\u2019 experience in the industry.<\/b><\/p>\n

Sign up to The Daily H<\/b><\/a>, a free newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.<\/b> <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The account number provided to Westpac had only 15 digits, not the intended 16, so Westpac added a…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":52980,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3093],"tags":[28353,28347,28348,6212,14120,28355,10910,13695,28351,51,28354,474,28359,25781,1429,28346,1232,26981,2499,529,28352,28358,3028,28349,20134,28357,6093,24882,16,28360,15,28356,6095,28350],"class_list":{"0":"post-52979","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-personal-finance","8":"tag-28353","9":"tag-158k","10":"tag-accidentally","11":"tag-account","12":"tag-after","13":"tag-allegedly","14":"tag-auckland","15":"tag-back","16":"tag-beneficiary","17":"tag-business","18":"tag-error","19":"tag-finance","20":"tag-give","21":"tag-investigation","22":"tag-life","23":"tag-loses","24":"tag-money","25":"tag-pensioner","26":"tag-personal-finance","27":"tag-police","28":"tag-received","29":"tag-refused","30":"tag-savings","31":"tag-sending","32":"tag-spending","33":"tag-spree","34":"tag-to","35":"tag-transfer","36":"tag-uk","37":"tag-under","38":"tag-united-kingdom","39":"tag-went","40":"tag-with","41":"tag-wrong"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/114406140316762940","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52979","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52979"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52979\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52980"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52979"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52979"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52979"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}