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The couple used the money to make a down payment on a Chevrolet SUV. File photo: AFP

Robert and Tiffany Williams went on a spending spree after bank deposited US$120,000 in error. Now it’s payback time

  • Couple bought a camper, racing car and gave money to friends before the bank realised the error

A Pennsylvania couple who went on a giddy spending spree after a bank accidentally deposited US$120,000 into their account are now regretting their spendthrift ways after going to trial on theft charges.

“It probably wasn’t the best thing in the end,” Robert Williams told local station WNEP-TV, explaining that they “took some bad legal advice” on the issue.

Over a two-and-a-half-week period in June, Williams and his wife, Tiffany, who carried a balance of US$1,121 before the error, withdrew more than US$100,000 of the surprise deposit, using it to make a down payment on a Chevrolet SUV.

Chinese man becomes instant billionaire … until bank realises error

The couple also bought a camper, a car trailer, a racing car and two four-wheelers, as well as using it to pay bills and to support needy friends to the tune of US$15,000.

It took three weeks for the bank, a branch of BB&T, to notice the error by which time about US$13,000 was left.

The bank told the couple they were responsible for the return of the money.

Tiffany Williams, 35, told bank officials “she would speak to her husband and attempt to construct a repayment agreement”, state trooper Aaron Brown told the Montoursville Sun-Gazette.

In separate interviews with investigators in late July, both Robert Williams, 36, and his wife “admitted to knowing the mislaid money did not belong to them, but they spent it anyway”.

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The couple then stopped communicating further with the bank and were later arraigned on felony charges of theft and receiving stolen property.

The couple’s neighbours offered little sympathy.

“I would check in with the bank first before I did anything,” offered Robert Painton, according to local television.

“I’m not that dumb but some people do stupid things sometimes.”

Additional reporting by The Washington Post

This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as: Spending-spree couple face legal price after bank error
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