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21st May 2024
05:17pm BST
A 24-year-old who went on a spending spree after $515,000 (£420,000) was mistakenly transferred into his account has been jailed.
Back in 2022, Abdel Ghadia pleaded guilty at Sydney's Burwood Local Court to two counts of dealing with the proceeds of crime, having spent large portions of the money on everything from clothes and makeup to gold bullion and foreign exchange.
He ended up with the money after famous nutritionist Tara Thorne and her husband Corey, were nearing the final stages of buying a home last year.
Court documents showed that the Sydney couple were attempting to buy a new home in October 2020, and were nearing the final stages of the process by June the next year – at which point their broker told them to transfer $759,314 (£590,000) to a nominated Commonwealth Bank account to finalise the purchase.
However, the conveyancer came back to them to say that the bank wasn’t able to find the money, which never made it to the specified account.
Instead, they had sent the money to Ghadia.
The young lad, who is an aspiring rapper and had been earning $4,800 a month at a clothes warehouse, was apprehended and questioned by police in October 2021, telling officers he "just woke up and saw the money."
After waking up to find the cash in his account, Ghadia decided to go on a wild shopping spree, starting off at the ABC Bullion store, where he spent a total of $598,188 on gold bars ranging in weight from 10oz to 1kg, with the purchases stretched out over six visits in June 2021.
He also spent $62,843 on a 500g gold bullion and 10oz bar at Queensland-based gold dealer Ainslie Bullion, as well as $48,222-worth of gold KHC coins.
Ghadia "wanted to give gold" to someone he "loved" - which he admitted to police upon his arrest – so he delved into the international money market to buy $14,490 in foreign exchange.
Between June and July that year, he also withdrew $13,600 in cash from ATMs across Sydney before finally splashing out $6,235 on clothes from Uniqlo and JD Sports and makeup from MECCA at Westfield Parramatta.
He was sentenced to 18 months in jail after pleading guilty.
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