Bank left red-faced in botched action over millionaire runaways

A botched legal action by Australian bank Westpac against the Wynn Macau Casino after two runaway millionaires from New Zealand went on a gambling spree has left the bank with even more egg on its face.

After an insolvent service-station owner from Rotorua and his girlfriend fled abroad after a multimillion-dollar windfall when a bank employee left out a decimal point, a slipshod attempt to recover its losses through the Hong Kong courts only heaped more embarrassment on Westpac.

Leo Gao Hui, his girlfriend Kara Hurring, and the couple's seven-year-old daughter Leena disappeared on May 7 after a Westpac employee transferred NZ$10 million (then worth HK$45 million) to Gao rather than the NZ$100,000 he had asked for. Westpac spotted the error after NZ$6.7 million was withdrawn, but only managed to get back less than half of that amount, leaving Gao and Hurring with NZ$3.8 million.

Reports say the couple have since been living it up in Macau, Hong Kong and the mainland and spent part of the money at gambling tables at the Wynn Macau.

In an attempt to recover the money, Westpac took legal action against Wynn International Marketing, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wynn Resorts, in Hong Kong's Court of First Instance. Wynn Resorts owns casinos and hotels in Macau and Las Vegas, Nevada.

The bank lost the case. In his judgment, Mr Justice Ian Carlson said Gao had transferred only part of the missing millions to the casino - NZ$658,643 - but the casino was the only other party named in Westpac's legal action.

He said Westpac's action against Wynn International Marketing was an attempt to extend High Court orders in New Zealand to freeze the assets of Gao's family.