A 24-year-old man from Sydney has been arrested and is awaiting sentencing after he spent $750,000 that appeared in his bank account by mistake.
Abdel Ghadia, an aspiring rapper from Western Sydney, awoke one morning in October 2020 to find a tidy sum of $750,000 had been deposited into his bank account, according to UniLad. The money had been transferred to him by a couple who intended for their hard-earned savings to go to a Commonwealth Bank, going towards the purchase of a new house.
But because they entered the wrong bank details, Ghadia found himself to be three-quarters of a million dollars richer.
We’re not sure if Ghadia stopped for a moment to consider not spending the money, but upon realising his newfound wealth, he got to work spending it. Curiously (and perhaps cleverly?) rather than take a trip to Harrolds or whisk himself away on holiday, he spent around $600,000 of it on gold bullion, from stores in Sydney and Queensland.
Ghadia admitted to police he “wanted to give gold,” to someone he “loved.” The gold is said to still be unaccounted for, so if he did manage to give it to someone, then we want them on our team next time we play hide and seek.
He’s also claimed to have spent nearly $6,500 on clothes from Uniqlo and JD Sports and a bunch of makeup from MECCA. We have…questions.
Perhaps unaware that spending money that clearly wasn’t his was illegal, Ghadia was eventually tracked down by police in October 2021. He allegedly told them he “had no idea how [the money] got there,” and that he did “[tell] the bank.” Perhaps the bank thought it was a hoax claim, or he didn’t wait for a response, because he did still “go and spend it.”
Ghadia will head back to court in December for sentencing.
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