Woman Jailed After Keeping & Using $17K That Was Accidentally Transferred to Her

Imagine this: One day, as you’re drawing money from the ATM, you suddenly realise something odd.

A mysterious someone had transferred a large amount of money into your bank account.

And even though you know it’s only right to return it, you have that niggling temptation to just keep it for yourself.

Well, you’d better not because making that one decision could just destroy your entire life, as one woman has recently learnt.

Woman Jailed After Keeping & Using $17K That Was Accidentally Transferred to Her

On 17 Jan 2019, 32-year-old Singaporean Ambikai was withdrawing $500 from the ATM when she realised she had an extra $17,000 in her bank account.

Now, she could’ve tried to contact the rightful owner, or the bank, to get it returned but she didn’t do so.

Instead, she withdrew $3,000, using $1,000 for personal expenses and kept the remaining amount.

She had also transferred $5,000 to her boyfriend’s account.

The next day, she took out the remaining $9,000 and gave it with the $2,000 she had on hand to her brother-in-law, who reportedly needed the money for home renovations.

Caught

You probably know how the story goes next.

Turns out, the money was the result of a love scam.

On 5 Feb 2019, the 65-year-old lodged a police report, stating that she was the victim of a love scam and had transferred a large amount of money to various accounts.

One of the accounts reported belonged to Ambikai, and the police identified her on 12 Feb 2019.

On 16 Jun 2019, Ambikai was arrested.

Sentencing

During court proceedings, the prosecutor of the case, Deputy Public Prosecutor Audrey Choo, said that Ambikai was fully aware that the $17,000 was not hers.

“She was fully aware that this excess sum did not belong to her, as she should have had only $500 in her account which she wished to withdraw that day.”

She was sentenced to 24 days in jail for her actions.

During mitigation, her defence lawyer told the judge that she was the sole breadwinner of her family and had made full repayment to the victim.

Keeping & Using Money That’s Not Yours Is A Criminal Offence

So, let’s say you transferred money to the wrong account, and the recipient is ghosting you because, well, who could say no to free money, right?

What do you do?

According to a CNA report in 2019, you can give the person a call or text and request your money back.

Most times, they are more than happy to return it to you, DBS senior vice-president (Consumer Payments and Platforms) Tri Arini Melati said.

However, if they refused to do so, you can actually sue or report them to the police.

Anyone who has the intention to use money that doesn’t belong to them can be jailed for up to two years and/or fined.

According to Loh Kia Meng, chief operating officer of law firm Dentons Rodyk, as long as notice is sent out, even if the person didn’t read or threw it away, he would still be considered as having been notified of, in this case, the wrong transfer.

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