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Woman arrested at Sydney Airport over alleged multi-mln-dollar fraud

Xinhua, May 5, 2016 Adjust font size:

A Sydney woman faced court Wednesday on fraud charges after she allegedly spent millions on handbags and luxury goods after a bank provided her with 4.6 million Australian dollars (3.44 million U.S. dollars) in error, the ABC reported on Thursday.

New South Wales (NSW) state police arrested 21-year-old Christine Jiaxin Lee at Sydney Airport on Wednesday evening.

The court heard she was attempting to board a flight to Malaysia with an emergency issued Malaysian passport.

The police prosecutor noted the money was accessed through an overdraft facility, mistakenly attached to Lee's Westpac savings account.

It's alleged she obtained 4.6 million Australian dollars (3.44 million U.S. dollars), 3.3 million Australian dollars (2.47 million U.S. dollars) of which is yet to be recovered.

Lee was granted bail by the magistrate; however, her bail conditions will mean she must report to police twice a day.

NSW state police detective inspector Sean Heaney told the ABC on Thursday that if members of the public find money in their accounts that should not be there, or they have an ability to overdraw on an account that they should not have, they should not spend the money.

"Speak to your financial institution, have the matter rectified, if you fall into the temptation of spending other people's money, you may be committing criminal offences," Heaney said.

He said exploiting an error made by the bank amounted to stealing.

"The money doesn't belong to you, you know that, don't go spending it, it's going to cause you some trouble with the police."

The case will return to court on June 21. Endit