Casino sued after gamble by NZ pair on run

A New Zealand couple who fled after being wrongly credited with NZ$10 million (HK$47.3 million) by Westpac bank might have spent part of the money at gambling tables in the Wynn Macau.

In an attempt to recover the money, the Westpac bank is taking legal action against Wynn International Marketing, which is a wholly owned subsidiary of Wynn Resorts that owns casinos and hotels in Macau and Las Vegas, according to New Zealand media reports.

The NZ$10 million was made available to Leo Gao, 29, by 'human error' after he applied to Westpac bank for an overdraft of NZ$100,000 for his struggling business in Rotorua, New Zealand.

The bank spotted the error after NZ$6.7 million was withdrawn, but only managed to get back less than half of the amount, leaving Mr Gao - who with his girlfriend Kara Hurring, 30, fled the country early this month - with NZ$3.8 million. The couple have reportedly been living it up in Macau, Hong Kong and on the mainland.

The bank did not explain why Wynn was named in the court papers, and a New Zealand court has ruled in favour of Westpac's call for suppression of the details on the grounds that publication would harm attempts to recover the missing money, a New Zealand Herald newspaper report said.

Westpac's lawyers said: 'If this information is released at this stage to enable further media reporting, it is likely that this release would frustrate Westpac's attempts to recover the funds, and also frustrate the investigations by the police and banks in various jurisdictions.'