Women blows $61K after a shop employee accidentally transferred $178k into her account

Two employee's at the charity shop were suspended due to the blunder. Photo / 123RF

A cleaner in Manchester blew £31,000 ($61,000) after a shop employee accidentally transferred over £90,000 ($178,000) into her account.

After returning a £9 item to a charity shop Comfort Konadu realised she had been transferred a lot more money than expected.

It is believed the employee accidentally added five extra zeros to the amount.

The Daily Mail reported Konadu transferred £57,000 into other accounts including the accounts of family members.

Only two-thirds of the money was retrieved after officials at the Royal Mencap Society noticed the error.

The Daily Mail has reported as it was a human error, the shop will now be liable for the loss.

Two employees have been suspended due to the mistake.

Konadu admitted to theft and was sentenced to 15 months in prison, suspended for two years.

She is now expected to return the outstanding money which represents 18 months of profit for the charity shop which helps people with learning difficulties.

Konadu will now face a Proceeds of Crime hearing.

The senior managers at the store became aware of the blunder the Monday following the incident.

The manager was able to retrieve £40,000 of the missing money.

"Once the money was in there it would have been very obvious to her that money should not have been in her bank account.

"What followed was a flurry not only to her bank account but to her friends and family's accounts as well.

"The debit went in and was processed on October 11, but it was the weekend and it appears that the money doesn't actually lend till October 14.

"Thereafter on the same date October 14, all the financial activity takes place. On October 15, remaining £40,000 is frozen quickly and taken back by Barclays Bank," Kate Gaskell prosecuting said.

Konadu claimed she was expecting a large sum of money into her account from another source.

When realising the amount was greater than expected she said she raised the issue with her bank.

But inquiries found she did not contact the bank.

"She has some family who live in this country and some who live in Ghana were some of the money went", said mitigation defence counsel Max Saffman

"She is from Ghana but she has been in this country for 15 years and is indefinitely to remain here and she has worked all the time she has been in this country as a cleaner.

"Until this windfall she was leading a very very modest lifestyle and she is a hardworking lady the vast majority of the time.

"The money was more than she could ever have dreamt of and temptation got the better of her."

Sentencing Judge Nicholas Dean, QC, said it was an unexpected event which the defendant took advantage of.

"She must have realised this was an error. It would be very different if she had somehow contrived to obtain credit in the first place.

"That's not the case and she fell prey to the temptation to use the money she knew perfectly well wasn't hers."