Woman caught taking $20k from faulty ATM

A US woman has been accused of withdrawing $20,000 from a faulty ATM machine. Photo / Getty Images

An American woman has been told to pay up after a bank accused her of making dozens of withdrawals from a faulty ATM that was dispensing $100 bills instead of $5 bills.

Christina C Ochoa is accused of taking US$14,795.21 ($20,253), knowing that the ATM wasn't functioning properly, according to the New York Post.

Now, the Central National Bank in Wichita wants her to pay it all back, plus interest, according to documents in a civil case against Ochoa.

The documents allege Ochoa made more than 50 withdrawals over five days in mid-January, several of which were done in the middle of the night, according to the New York Post.

The civil case also names Ochoa's mother, Christy, since she reportedly drove her daughter to the bank.

"The first time the ATM dispensed more money than what was due … Christina and Christy had a duty to return the surplus funds to the bank. … Not only did they fail to (do) so, but they capitalised on the situation by making a series of over fifty structured withdrawals, most within minutes of each other, and transacted at all hours of the night in order to expose Central to more loss," court documents reportedly said.

The Wichita Eagle spoke to the Ochoas, who said they did nothing wrong.

Christy told the outlet her daughter never received larger bills and has receipts as proof of her transactions.

Christy claims the reason her daughter made so many transactions was because she wanted as many US$5 bills as possible in order to make a "money cake" as a gift for someone, The Eagle reported.

"You can't type in the number of fives you want at the ATM, so that's why we did multiple transactions," Christy told The Eagle.

The lawsuit against the Ochoa's claims that when the bank asked for the money back, Christy "wholly refused to do so".