Man mistakenly given £122k by bank was told he could keep it

The account only had a quid in it before

Urslaan Khan, 41, was baffled when he saw the six-figure sum in his account, which had just £1 in it when he'd gone to bed the night before.

When he noticed the huge injection of cash, he immediately informed Gatehouse Bank.

And he could barely believe it when the bank told him the money was his and he could keep it.

Unfortunately for Urslaan, it was too good to be true and the next day the bank realised their error, asking him to return the money.

The admin assistant, from Poplar, east London, paid it all back on Monday (October 2).

He said: "I had £1 in my savings account.

"I'd set up a standing order, where £200 is meant to drop from there into my current account. But I didn't have the money in there for that to happen.

"So when it did I went to check my balance - and it said £122,000.

"It's not only the case that they put the money in my account - they even allowed me to transfer it over to my Barclays account."

Urslaan believes the money was intended for another customer who has at least two accounts with the bank.

He said: "By the looks of it, this person must have two accounts - account A and B.

"The bank should have taken money from A and put it in B. But somewhere along the line it's ended up in my account - account Z!"

After speaking to the bank, Urslaan was able to send the money back.

He said: "I'd be set up for life if I had kept it. But, if I was going to keep the money, I wouldn't have told anyone!"

And he added: "I took the initiative to make them aware of this.

"I was put on hold three times - only to be assured that there was nothing to worry about.

"And it took them 24 hours to realise their mistake. I didn't request the transfer, it just landed in my account."

Gatehouse Bank said it could not comment on individual customer accounts.

If he had spent the money, in the knowledge it wasn't his, Urslaan could have landed himself in a fair amount of trouble.

People have felt the heavy hand of the law in the past after spending money they received as a result of a banking error.

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