Featured Image Credit: A Current Affair
Topics: Australia, World News, Money
Dominic Smithers
A bloke who managed to nab £1 million from a glitching cash machine spent the lot in four months before turning himself over.
Aussie bloke Dan Saunders was down to his last three quid but made the decision to withdraw £100 from a cash machine and deal with the problems later on.
While his cash machine of choice told him his transaction had been rejected it still spat out the money, and the man figured out that he'd stumbled on quite the glitch.
Saunders worked out that if he went to the cash machine between midnight and 1am he could take out as much money as he liked and not get charged for it.
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Having discovered what seemed like an infinite money hack he paid of his friends student debts, bought himself fancy suits and even paid for trips on private jets and expensive escorts.
He told the Sun: "Being able to withdraw hundreds with the stroke of a key was a very addictive thing - I felt like a caveman discovering fire."
Eating out at the best restaurants and throwing wild parties began to take their toll, Dan was racking up an incredible amount of debt and had to keep his double life a secret from his family.
His biggest expense was when he spent £50,000 on chartering a 20-seat private jet, filled with all his mates, to an island near Bali.
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"I couldn't tell you exactly where it was, but I didn't need a passport to get there," Dan said.
"We were in the air for about three hours and had filled the plane up with people.
"It was a mix of old friends and new faces. We hired the whole resort, the over-water villas and ate and drank there.
"I opened the book on anything - people just gave me their dreams and I fulfilled them."
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It wasn't just close friends who benefited from Dan's newfound wealth, he once hired a minibus and picked up strangers from hostels in Melbourne and drove them to an estate in Yarra Valley, where he held crazy pool parties.
But as time went by things quickly went downhill for Dan, who eventually tried gambling to win the money back; overcome with guilt he suffered from vivid nightmares.
He said: "I remember waking up in a pool full of sweat, realising that it was just a dream and then hotel doorbell rang. I was like 'that's it, I'm gone. They're coming to get me', which actually would have been a relief - but it turned out to be the maid asking if I'd like fresh towels."
After blowing all of the cash Dan eventually got in touch with the bank and told them what he had done.
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Three years later he was arrested on 111 counts related to fraud and theft.
Dan said: "The court case was weird because no one actually understood what I did: not the judge, not the prosecutor, it was very odd.
"There were many blank looks; the bank provided minimal evidence so it was really just a case of 'bad Dan and that's it....case closed.
"They even played the Current Affair interview in the court room as evidence. It was surreal."
After serving just a year in prison, Dan was released in May 2016.
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In a statement, NAB told LADbible: "Once the fraudulent transactions were confirmed in May 2011, NAB took immediate action to close the relevant accounts and prevent any further fraudulent transactions by the individual.
"NAB also ensured a similar fraud could not be carried out by any other individual."